The rise in popularity of electric scooters has coincided with a rise in e-scooter-related injuries, and one local community is looking to crack down on the unsafe use of these vehicles.

Dan Jaworski, mayor of Highland Village, stated in a Facebook message that city council members had been receiving reports through text, email, and phone about children using these scooters in an unsafe manner. The volume of these reports has increased since the end of the school year.

“In particular, stop signs and traffic signals being ignored, crossing streets in front of cars, not using intersections to cross, etc — basically showing a lack of traffic rules knowledge,” said Jaworski.

Jaworski urged parents to reinforce mindfulness in their children who use these scooters, referencing an earlier post from the Highland Village Fire Department that detailed safety measures riders should take when using these motorized scooters.

The HVFD said in this post that as the popularity of e-scooters has risen, so have reports from first responders of injuries such as concussions, lacerations, broken bones, and fractures.

“E-scooters can reach top speeds of 15-25 mph which is faster than the average commuter bike,” said the HVFD in the post. “Safety research shows that e-scooter accidents can include collisions with cars, curbs, poles, and manhole covers, to name a few.”

A few of these scenarios have already come to pass.

A boy reported to be about 13 years old was hospitalized in critical condition after he was discovered unconscious next to one of these scooters on June 5. A passing motorist, a resident of the area, stopped to render aid, according to the Cross Timbers Gazette.

Another incident occurred the same week. On June 8, a 13-year-old female, operating a scooter with another girl riding as a passenger, was injured in a collision with a Frontier van. The passenger on the scooter jumped off before the crash and was not hurt, but the teen operating the scooter was injured and was transported to a hospital.

Neither the boy on June 5 nor the passenger on June 8 was wearing a helmet in these instances, although the girl operating the scooter was. Jaworski told NBC DFW that the boy injured on June 5 is currently in a medically induced coma.

On Sunday, Highland Village police received a report of another crash between a car and an e-scooter in a shopping center parking lot.

The Highland Village Police Department lists city regulations for operators of motorized scooters on its website. Scooter operators must be at least 12 years of age, and all users between 12 and 17 must wear a helmet while operating the scooter. Passengers are not allowed on scooters, and users must have a driver’s license or complete scooter training and obtain a city permit.

The Highland Village Police Department offers free scooter training sessions on request.

Jaworski said that local police will begin enforcing the requirement that riders wear helmets while the city council considers updating the city’s current ordinances so that they can be enforced more effectively.

“The ordinance was written many, many years ago before these specific e-scooters came out,” said Jaworski, according to NBC DFW. “So, we want to make sure that what we have in place today addresses all of the new developments in scooters over the last 10 or 12 years.”

The city council is set to discuss this matter in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, Jaworski implores parents to teach their children to operate their scooters safely and obey the traffic laws.

“It could save your child’s life,” said Jaworski in a Facebook post.