Denver E-Scooter Deaths Hit Record High in 2025

Fifteen people have died while riding standing electric scooters in Denver since the rentable devices hit the Mile High City in 2018. More than half of those deaths occurred just last year.

The city recorded eight deaths of standing e-scooter riders in 2025, according to the Department of Transportation & Infrastructure’s dashboard. That is quadruple the previous record for annual e-scooter deaths, set in 2021 and 2023.

Seven of the eight deaths resulted from scooter collisions with motor vehicles, according to Denver Police Department reports. In total, 199 scooter-vehicle crashes were reported to Denver police in 2025. In addition to the seven fatalities, nineteen crashes resulted in serious bodily injuries. However, those represent a small fraction of the total scooter-related injuries suffered by Denver residents, as the vast majority of incidents go unreported to police.

Denver Health registered 1,868 patient encounters attributed to scooter injuries in 2025, according to hospital data. That is more than five patient encounters each day of the year.

Scooter injuries at Denver Health dipped slightly in 2025 compared to the 1,962 patient encounters in 2024, but they’re still up from 661 in 2020 and approximately 1,400 in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The number of patient encounters includes duplicates for patients who visited multiple care facilities for the same injury and covers mobility scooters in addition to standing e-scooters, but it gives an idea of how few injury-causing e-scooter incidents result in official police reports.

Police reports for scooter-vehicle crashes similarly decreased between 2024 and 2025, from 222 to 199, according to DPD data. Though last year’s crash total represents a 211 percent increase from the 64 reported crashes in 2023, which at the time was a record high for the city.

The incident rates are relatively low considering the frequency of e-scooter rides taken in Denver. The city recorded over 5.4 million trips on rentable e-scooters in 2025, or approximately 14,850 per day, according to Denver’s micromobility dashboard.

However, the spike in deaths in 2025 occurred amid a decrease in citywide e-scooter ridership.

Compared to 2024, the city recorded over 377,000 fewer e-scooter trips last year, marking the first time Denver’s number of annual e-scooter trips has declined since the micromobility dashboard began keeping track in 2019.

Denver experienced unprecedented traffic deaths across the board in 2025. The city tallied 93 deaths, making 2025 the deadliest year on record, dating back to 2013. This included 35 pedestrian fatalities (the most on record) and five bicyclists (the most since 2018), in addition to the eight e-scooter riders. The Denver Streets Partnership gave Mayor Mike Johnston a “D” grade for bicycle and pedestrian safety in January, citing the mounting traffic deaths.

Denver City Council members have pushed to improve the safety and organization of e-scooters in recent years.

In May, the council passed an ordinance requiring mandatory scooter parking zones in certain neighborhoods, technology that detects when users ride on sidewalks, and compliance tests that riders must pass before being able to rent the vehicles. The city announced plans to switch scooter operators, replacing Bird and Lime with Veo, to help implement these new regulations.

Beginning this spring, Veo intends to roll out e-scooters in Denver that have a sensor system to detect unsafe behaviors, including sudden movements, swerving, sidewalk riding and riding with multiple passengers. Riders will be alerted if they engage in such behavior, and, if they commit repeat offenses, will be fined or suspended from the platform, according to DOTI.

Though the system is meant to increase safety, it will also result in more scooters sharing roads with vehicles, where almost all of the city’s fatal scooter collisions have occurred.

The city’s negotiations with Veo are ongoing.