Shepherd Center Launches Scoot Safe Initiative
Scoot Safe’s mission is to equip key stakeholders and inspire electric scooter riders to make safer riding choices.
On May 17, Shepherd Center launched Scoot Safe, an initiative to develop a safety education program around electric scooters, which are now a ubiquitous part of city life. The project is led by Emma Harrington, Shepherd Center’s director of injury prevention and education, who received a grant from the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety to test this program in the Atlanta area.
Scoot Safe’s two major goals are increasing awareness and protective factors for electronic scooter injury prevention and decreasing electric scooter-related deaths and injuries. The campaign targets the following key areas:
- Helmet use
- Drinking and riding
- Speeding
- First-time rider education
“Micromobility, which includes small, lightweight vehicles like e-scooters, has so much potential to create a more equitable and environmentally friendly commuting option,” Harrington says. “But, as we go forward, we have to ensure basic safety measures are in place like normalizing proper helmet use. That is what we hope to achieve with the Scoot Safe campaign – public awareness of the safety measures they can start implementing today.”
The campaign will include a series of engaging public service announcements with safety tips for scooters, targeted digital advertising and the ScootSafeGA.com website that houses more information about the project along with resources, graphics and content any person or organization can download and share.
Shepherd Center provides world-class clinical care, research, and family support for people experiencing the most complex conditions, including spinal cord and brain injuries, multi-trauma, multiple amputations, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and pain. Ranked by U.S. News as one of the nation’s top 10 hospitals for rehabilitation and the best in the Southeast, Shepherd Center treats more than 850 inpatients and 7,600 outpatients annually with unmatched expertise and unwavering compassion to help them begin again.