Musician Sani Aartela breaks leg in e-scooter accident
Friday 13th November 2026 on 12:01 in
Finland
Finnish musician Sani Aartela broke her leg while dodging an electric scooter in Tampere, Yle reports. She has continued performing with her leg in a cast, including at a wedding shortly after surgery.
Aartela was leaving the entrance vestibule of a pharmacy on Hämeenkatu when she noticed the quietly moving scooter only as it reached her. She managed to dodge it but broke her leg in the process.
Speaking on Yle’s Koko Suomen Radio programme a few weeks after the accident, Aartela said she could sing from a bar stool. She performs both solo and with her band Aikakone.
“We went straight from the operating table to a wedding gig,” she said, adding that cancelling too many performances could make people think an artist was unreliable. She said a show involved many people and that she would keep working “as long as there’s life in me.”
Tampere introduced speed limits for electric scooters this summer. The limit is 10 kilometres per hour on the busiest pedestrian streets and 15 kilometres per hour on Hämeenkatu, where Aartela was injured.
Inkeri Parkkari, a senior specialist at the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, said scooter accidents have begun to decline in major cities. The Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa said injuries involving electric scooters in its region had fallen to a third of last year’s level. It attributed the decline to a drop in scooter use and the introduction of an alcohol limit.
According to road traffic accident statistics cited by Traficom, two users of light electric vehicles died and 134 were injured last year. From January to September this year, two died and 67 were injured. Parkkari cautioned that not all injuries are recorded in the statistics. She said night-time bans and lower speed limits in busy city centres had helped, but added that authorities should consider whether further restrictions, including a helmet requirement, were needed.
Traffic insurance has been compulsory for rental electric scooters since 2024. Welfare regions can seek compensation for treatment costs, but only if they know which insurer covered the scooter. Parkkari said users should follow traffic rules and never ride on the pavement.