Wear a helmet, says man who suffered brain injury in e-scooter crash

After an e-scooter accident landed Keith Batchelor in hospital for six weeks with a traumatic brain injury, the Ottawa man has this reminder for others.

"If you're getting on a bicycle or a scooter in the city, put a helmet on," Batchelor, 42, said from his Centretown home, where he just returned from hospital this week.

"It doesn't matter if your hair is messy when you get to work. Your life is at stake."

The City of Ottawa has no plans to review its current e-scooter bylaw, which only requires riders under the age of 18 to wear a helmet in accordance with Ontario's Highway Traffic Act.

One late evening in mid-August, Batchelor was out test driving his girlfriend's e-scooter after making some repairs. He strapped on his bicycle helmet and headed out on a short trip around the block at about 25 km/h. 

When he didn't return after an hour his partner, Caitlin Galipeau, started to worry.

"I started calling around to the hospitals and they had someone who matched his description," said Galipeau. "He didn't have his ID on him, so he was admitted as a John Doe."

Batchelor doesn't actually remember what happened.

"From what I can tell I hit a pothole or something and just went down on the concrete. I hit my head and woke up in the hospital," he said, still wearing a patch over his right eye.

Batchelor suffered a diffuse axonal injury, when the brain's long connecting nerve fibers (axons) tear. He was in an out of consciousness for the first two weeks of his initial stay at the Civic campus of The Ottawa Hospital. 

I just keep thinking, oh my God, if he wasn't wearing his helmet, he would be dead.- Caitlin Galipeau

"Every part of my brain was bruised and swollen, and I had very high blood pressure," he said. "With the extent of damage to the helmet, I definitely would be either a lot worse off or dead [if I hadn't been wearing it]."

Galipeau was at Batchelor's side daily during his recovery in hospital.

"He wasn't really speaking. He wasn't able to walk on his own. He wasn't able to really convey complicated ideas. It was really scary," she said.

Eventually Batchelor was transferred to the acquired brain injury (ABI) unit at the hospital's General campus.

He's also been struggling with double vision, and the eye patch is supposed to help with that.

Helmet rule not for adults

In Ottawa, only riders under 18 must wear a helmet, although Ottawa Public Health encourages everyone to don one when they're operating an e-scooter.

However, only Neuron Mobility, one of two companies currently providing e-scooters in Ottawa as part of the city's epilot program, offers helmets to riders. 

While Ontario's Ministry of Transportation doesn't require riders 18 and older to wear helmets on e-scooters, in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, the rules are more stringent: All e-scooter riders in Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo must wear helmets, regardless of their age, thanks to a bylaw that supersedes the provincial law.

Across Canada, many municipalities require helmets for all riders, including in B.C., Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan.

According to a City of Ottawa report, emergency room visits due to e-scooter incidents have fluctuated since the e-scooter rental program was first launched.

The report reveals ER visits "that may be associated with kick-type e-scooters increased in 2021 (166 visits) compared to 2020 (47 visits)." 

The most recent data from April to June 2022 shows 38 e-scooter-related visits. Regardless of the year, injuries — those often included head, neck and face injuries — were most common among young adults ages 20 to 29. 

In a news release last month, Neuron Mobility said it surveyed people across Canada asking them how to encourage more riders to wear helmets. More than two-thirds of the respondents suggested legislating it.

Program under constant review 

For now, that's not something the city is considering.

"The reality is, there are provincial laws, and if we did notice a trend, certainly this would be something we could look at, but we haven't seen this in the city," said Coun. Tim Tierney, who chairs the city's transportation committee.

The city's shared e-scooter pilot program is one of the strictest in North America, he said. 

Heidi Cousineau, the city's program manager for traffic calming, said Ottawa is committed to ensuring the safety of scooter riders.

"The City's e-scooter program is a pilot and as such, staff are continuously reviewing the program, including the by-law, and will make recommendations and adjustments for future seasons based on feedback and observations," she said.

Getting back to life post-accident

Batchelor, a chef, is now trying to restart his life.

"It has affected my ability to function normally. I have trouble focusing. I feel very clumsy a lot of the time," he said.

Still, his recovery is going better than expected.

"I just keep thinking, oh my God, if he wasn't wearing his helmet, he would be dead," said Galipeau.

And while Batchelor continues to be an advocate for e-scooters and cycling, he's now on a mission to remind people to protect their heads.

"I still see so many people ... just not wearing a helmet and it drives me nuts," he said. "It can happen to anybody, even a skilled rider. Everybody in your life is affected when you go down."