NITV Radio News - 28/07/2025
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Perth Now
9 hours ago
- Perth Now
Top docs call for action on speedy e-scooters and bikes
Doctors have thrown their weight behind a push to tackle high-speed electric scooters and bikes, as the national injury and death toll among riders, passengers and pedestrians grows. The Australian Medical Association says a national body is urgently needed to develop an Australia-wide safety strategy and regulations for e-mobility vehicles. "Doctors around the country have seen a massive spike in injuries," emergency medicine representative Sarah Whitelaw told AAP on Thursday. "Complex limb injuries, young people with facial injuries that will impact them for the rest of their lives, chest injuries and brain injuries. "The devastation from patients and their families, who tell us over and over that they just had no idea that they could get so significantly injured." The peak national body for doctors also wants better data capture to help decision makers and for infrastructure that, for example, separates electric mobility devices from pedestrians. A national strategy also needed to recognise the different types of electric rideables and the way they were being used, so that specific policy could be formulated, Dr Whitelaw said. "We need, right now, a national body that's set up to bring all this information together and have a national approach, not this piecemeal state and territory approach," she said. "We're at the very beginning of electric mobility devices in Australia and we are going to see hundreds of thousands more of these devices." From 2016 to 2021, there were 14 deaths reported to an Australian state or territory coroner in which an electric mobility device, including e-bikes, e-scooters and electronic self-balancing devices, contributed to the death, according to the Monash University Accident Research Centre. A University of Melbourne study of media reports from January 2020 to April 2025 found the number of electric mobility device-related deaths across the country had more than doubled to 30 during that period. One of the most recent fatalities was in Perth on Saturday, when a teenage boy allegedly riding erratically on an electric dirt bike struck and killed a 59-year-old woman in a suburban park. The 17-year-old was charged with manslaughter, and a Western Australian parliamentary committee inquiry into electric rideable devices, which started this week, has been expanded to include e-bikes. An inquiry has also been launched in Queensland, and the NSW and Victorian governments wrote to the federal government earlier in July calling for a crackdown on the importation and sale of some e-bikes and e-scooters being illegally ridden on Australian roads. High-speed and dangerous mobility devices are being imported and sold and the states want them banned. In Australia, the maximum speed e-scooters can be ridden is from 20 to 25km/h, depending on the jurisdiction. E-bike motors must cut off when the bike reaches 25km/h. NSW and Victoria also called for tougher safety regulations and import laws for lithium batteries, citing the risk to public safety an "increasing" number of fires posed. The federal government has been contacted for comment.
ABC News
9 hours ago
- ABC News
Midwives express remorse after home birth and Victorian baby's death
Two midwives have told a coronial inquest about their regrets after a baby died in hospital following a home birth in 2022. The infant, who can only be known as Baby R, died in August 2022 of perinatal hypoxia, six days after an emergency caesarean at Bendigo Health. The inquest, held in the Coroners Court of Victoria this week, heard two private midwives present during the home birth of Baby R conceded their care was inadequate when complications arose, and that a transfer to the hospital should have happened sooner. The Melbourne court heard Baby R's mother, a former midwife herself, wanted a "natural" vaginal home birth after a traumatic first birth in 2019, which resulted in an emergency c-section after her baby was born macrosomic (large). The inquest heard on Thursday that under Australian midwifery guidelines, Baby R's mother was not considered suitable for a home birth. Earlier this week, an obstetrician at Bendigo Health said she held concerns at the time that the two private midwives were practising "outside national midwifery guidelines". Elizabeth Murphy was Baby R's mother's primary midwife while Marie-Louise Lapeyre, the only other private midwife in the region, was also present to assist in the birth. The women were experienced home birth midwives and had worked together frequently. The inquest heard doctors Andrew Woods and Helen Cooke suggested both midwives should have discussed a transfer to hospital with Baby R's mother about four hours earlier than they did. Ms Lapeyre broke down in court as she called it a "deep regret" and that "extreme tiredness" could have impaired her decision-making during the birth. Both women had come straight from other births and had not slept. The inquest heard Baby R's mother thought she would be on her way to hospital when she passed meconium liquor, which could indicate a baby in distress. Instead, Ms Lapeyre told her they would monitor the baby more closely. "I should've given Baby R's mother a choice and I didn't, and that goes against everything I stand for as a midwife," Ms Lapeyre told the court. Ms Murphy echoed her colleague's regrets, and said the midwives should have consulted another midwife or obstetrician at that moment. "I recognise that in this situation we made mistakes and I'm so remorseful about that," Ms Murphy said. "I know that Baby R suffered because of what we did, but I think that women can have a good experience and mostly do at home, even when they're having a vaginal birth after a caesarean." Later in the labour, Ms Murphy was taking a nap at 6:55pm when Ms Lapeyre first detected that Baby R's heart rate was abnormally fast. Ms Lapeyre did not wake Ms Murphy but told the coroner's court in hindsight, she should have. The inquest heard when the baby's heart rate was again found to be too fast 50 minutes later, Baby R's mother was taken to hospital. "I'm just sorry for the journey of grief you are undertaking and will be ongoing — I know about that journey," Ms Laperye said to Baby R's parents watching the inquest online. Ms Murphy told the inquest on Thursday she maintained Baby R's mother was "suitable to have the opportunity to try and have a home birth". She told the coroner's court she felt Baby R's mother was aware of the potential risks and was "diligent" in her preparation for birth. The inquest heard that in January 2022, eight months prior to Baby R's death, Bendigo Health head of obstetrics Nicola Yuen met with Ms Lapeyre and Ms Murphy with the aim of building a "collaborative relationship". "There were a couple of times Bendigo Health became aware of women birthing in the community who were high-risk," Dr Yuen said. Dr Yuen said while Ms Lapeyre was highly engaged with Bendigo Health after the meeting, the doctor did not recall the same attitude from Ms Murphy. Dr Yuen said there was a "missed opportunity" to change the outcome for Baby R, when the baby's mother declined a routine obstetrician consultation at 36 weeks' gestation. Ms Murphy had written to Bendigo Health saying Baby R's mother did "not need" the consultation, but hospital staff flagged risks in Baby R's mother's birth history and offered it anyway. Baby R's mother said in her statement to the inquest she declined the hospital's offer as she thought it was a "box ticking exercise". Ms Murphy told the court she regretted her wording in the letter and should have written that Baby R's mother did not "want" to see an obstetrician. However, the midwife said she did not think an obstetrician would have "positively contributed" to Baby R's mother's care. She said her previous clients had been "badgered and treated unkindly by obstetricians because of the choices they were making". Ms Lapeyre said women who chose home birth were rarely respected for their choices and obstetricians often used coercive language. But, she said she would tell her patients they needed to go into a home birth "with eyes wide open" and recommended they faced their fears of seeing an obstetrician. The court has heard since Ms Murphy and Ms Lapeyre were directed not to practice private midwifery by health authorities, more women in central Victoria had chosen to "free birth" without any healthcare professional present. The inquest continues.
ABC News
10 hours ago
- ABC News
Hobart has the highest incidence of multiple sclerosis in Australia, could our DNA provide the answers?
Tennille Luke Hobart has one of the highest rates of MS in Australia. And while genetics can play a role, the evidence points more strongly to environmental factors. So one of the key reasons is Hobart's latitude, it's quite southern, and so there's less sunlight, which means there's lower vitamin D levels, and that's a known risk factor for developing MS. So this geographic pattern has also been seen globally, not just in Australia. So that's why research like this is important, especially in Tasmania, where MS is more common. If we can detect biological changes before symptoms appear, we might be able to intervene earlier and improve outcomes. It's about understanding who is at risk of developing MS based on their DNA, and how the immune system responds to common viruses. So what it does highlight is the importance of early detection and personalised research. And the more we understand genetic risks, the better we'll be able to support people with MS in the future. Kylie Baxter And just one thing more coming back to the UV exposure. So vitamin D, how is it that lack of vitamin D can increase the risk of developing MS? What is the link there? Why is that? Tennille Luke That is a really good question. And we're all trying to understand that in more detail. There is a link in the immune system, but scientists are still trying to answer that. And I'm not exactly the expert to answer that. So it's an ongoing research area. And we're still trying to understand the link there.
