At least 16 e-scooter crashes in Boone County since late 2024 have sent nearly a dozen people to the hospital, with riders as young as 7 years old involved, according to Boone County Sheriff's Office data reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer on Aug. 8.
The numbers put a concrete toll behind the regulatory push already underway in Boone County, Florence and Union. No e-scooter or e-bike ordinance has been drafted, and the Boone County Fiscal Court has not yet heard the findings of an internal legal review led by assistant county attorney Bill Noble.
That presentation is expected at a Fiscal Court caucus meeting in September.
Who is getting hurt
The crashes are not fender-benders. Almost a dozen of the 16 incidents required hospital transport, and Sheriff's Office deputies documented children as young as 7 operating e-scooters involved in crashes on county roads.
The data aligns with national research. A 2026 study published in Nature's Scientific Reports found e-scooter riders face higher relative risks of traumatic brain injury than motorcyclists. The study found 16.2% of e-scooter injuries involved riders under 18, and only 5.9% of riders were documented wearing helmets. Crashes in affluent suburban areas, while less frequent than in cities, were more likely to produce severe trauma because of wider roads, higher vehicle speeds and fewer dedicated cycling lanes.
Regulatory timeline
As we reported Aug. 5, county administrator Matthew Webster told the Fiscal Court on July 28 that Noble has been surveying state statutes, reviewing ordinances from other communities and meeting with the Sheriff's Office and Public Works.
"He's performed a review of the state statutes, taking a look at county ordinances, done some market research … and then has been facilitating meetings with the sheriff's office, public works and the county administration, all building to an anticipated presentation to the court that we hope will happen at a caucus meeting sometime in September," Webster said at the July 28 meeting.
Florence Police Chief Jeff Mallery has confirmed his department is participating in the discussions, providing field data and officer observations. The Union City Commission voted July 27 to align its future e-bike regulations with whatever Boone County adopts, since the Sheriff's Office handles law enforcement within Union city limits.
Webster noted that e-bikes and e-scooters each present distinct regulatory challenges under existing Kentucky law, complicating any single approach. Officials have cited three overlapping concerns driving the effort: pedestrian safety, rider safety and driver safety.
What's next
No specific date for the September caucus presentation has been announced. The Sheriff's Office has not publicly commented on the crash data beyond the figures obtained by the Enquirer.
Residents who want to report unsafe e-scooter activity can contact the Boone County Sheriff's Office at (859) 334-2175.
