Economy 17 October 2025, 5:00am

E-scooter accidents resulting in injury up 30% year-on-year in Hungary in January-July

Portfolio

A man was riding an electronic scooter without protective gear when he hit a deer outside Nagykőrös a few days ago, according to a video posted on Facebook by the Pest County police. The animal perished in the collision and although the man was rushed into a hospital, he later succumbed to his injuries. We have been writing about the rising number of e-scooter accidents and now have looked at the latest statistics. These showed the highest ever number of e-scooter accidents for July.

The number of road accidents caused by passenger transport vehicles dropped by 1.4% month on month and 0.5% in annual terms in July 2025, according to the latest figures of the Central Statistical Office (KSH).

Motor vehicles for passenger transport caused 1,279 accidents resulting in personal injuries in July 2025, which corresponds to a decrease of 1.4% compared to June, and -0.5% compared to the same month of 2024, the latest KSH data show.

The graph below clearly reflects seasonal patterns, with the number of road accidents involving injuries rising between the start of the year and the end of summer.

The number of accidents caused by the drivers of passenger cars, modepds, motorcycles or bicycles fits into the seasonal pattern.

The total number of road accidents involcing personal injuries (which includes those that were caused by pedestrians, freigh transport or other passenger transport vehicles) was 1,451 in July, down 2.4% m/m and 2.7% yr/yr.

Bikes, mopeds, motorcycles...

The KSH has longer-term statistics for accidents caused by the riders of bicycles, mopeds and motorcycles. These go back to January 2021 and also show a seasonal pattern, with much higher accident numbers for cyclists, especially when it comes to the cumulated figure.

There were 15% fewer accidents caused by cyclists than in June and 7.2% fewer than in July 2024. The number of accidents caused by moped riders rose 1.7% m/m, but dropped almost 25% in annual terms. The number of accidents caused by motorcyclists edged up 1.9% in monthly terms and jumped 36% in annual terms.

E-bikes, e-scooters...

The Central Statistical Office (KSH) has only started collecting statistics on accidents involving e-scooter or e-bike riders since January 2024.

Last year, e-scooter riders were involved in 367 accidents resulting in personal injury, and there were 350 such accidents in the first seven months of this year, up 31% from 217 in January-July last year.
E-bike riders caused 133 accidents resulting in personal injury on the road last year, and 73 in the first seven months of 2025, down 3.9% from 76 in Jan-July last year.
By comparison, moped drivers caused 497 accidents resulting in personal injury in 2024, and 280 in the first seven months of this year, against 327 (-14.4%) in Jan-July 2024.
Meanwhile, bike riders (not on e-bike) caused 1,228 accidents resulting in personal injury last year, and 699 in the first seven months this year, 92% fewer than 770 in the same period last year.
Passenger car drivers caused 9,675 accidents resulting in personal injury last year, and 5,095 in Jan-July this year, down 5.3% from 5,379 in the same period last year.

Recently, we have seen a growing number of shocking videos of e-scooter riders being hit by cars. These accidents usually occur at pedestrian crossings, where riders should dismount and walk, allowing motorists to anticipate and react to the much lower speed of pedestrians. The police pointed out the importance of protective gear in the video mentioned in the lead.

Unfortunately, july saw the highest number of e-scooter accidents resulting in injuries (97).

The cumulative number of such accidents was 717, up from just 217 a year earlier. (The KSH began publishing statistics on e-bike and e-scooter accidents in January 2024.)

In July, there were only nine accidents caused by e-bike riders, bringing the total number of such accidents to "only" 206, which compares with 76 a year earlier.

How serious are the accidents?

As regards the seriousness of the accidents, the KSH breaks them down into four categories: (i) fatal, (ii) serious injury, (iii) light injury, (iv) no injury.

Bike accidents

Last year, 23 of the 1,228 accidents (1.9%) caused by bike riders were fatal.

This figure was 1.4% for the first seven months of last year and 2.0% for January-July this year.

The percentage of serious injuries went up to 36.5% from 32.5% in Jan-July, while that of light injuries moderated to under 61% from almost 66%.

Moped accidents

As for moped riders, six or 1.2% of personal injury accidents were fatal last year.

The 0.9% fatality rate for January-July 2024 rose to 1.4% in the same period this year.

The percentage of serious injuries edged up to 42,5% from 40.1%, while that of light injuries dropped to 56.4% from 59%.

E-scooter accidents

Of the 367 accidents resulting in personal injury in 2024, only three (0.8%) were fatal when caused by an e-scooter rider.

Only one of the 350 accidents in this vehicle category was fatal in the first seven months of this year (0.3%), just like in the same period last year (0.5%).

The ratio of serious injuries (111) moderated to 31.7% from 37.8% (82 in Jan-July 2024), while that of light injuries was up at 68% (238) from 61.8% (134) in Jan-July 2024.

E-bike accidents

Last year, three accidents caused by e-bikers were fatal, accounting for 2.3% of the 133 cases.

In contrast, two of the 73 cases this year proved to be fatal, equating to 2.7%.

25, or about one third of the total number of accidents resulting in injuries, ended with serious injuries, down slightly from 38.2% in January-July last year, while the share of light injuries was fairly unchanged at 61.6% against 60.5%.

The following graphs show a monthly breakdown of the above vehicles in terms of the severity of the accidents they caused...