CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The trend known as electric scooters has infilitrated Uptown Charlotte.

• Doctors are concerned for the safety of e-scooter riders who don't use helmets
• Residents, police and doctors say helmets will prevent injuries
• Seattle is the only city in the U.S. that require helmets

While the solar-powered vehicles are in-line with the city’s efforts to get people out of their cars, feedback is pouring in about riders who are also zipping in and out of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, people riding in pairs and many not wearing a helmet.

"You still might injure your neck,” said Novant Health Medical Director Dr. Charles Bregier. “But, basically head and facial injuries are largely prevented by wearing a helmet."

Doctors like Bregier and those that have recovered from head injuries are now asking for city officials to do more to keep riders and pedestrians safe.

"Just like North Carolina requires all motorocyclist to wear helmets, it is time for change," Uptown resident Alan Sussman said during his address to Charlotte city council Monday night.

He told them about what happened to him in 2015 in Uptown. He told the council he was hit by a car while riding his bike. Pictures captured his badly injured body in the hospital. It took two years for him to recover.

"Many broken bones, a crushed spinal cord injury and a blow to the head," he said "I survived this accident 'cause I was wearing a proper helmet," Sussman said.

It's a practice he desperately wants the city's growing electric scooter population to pick up. Right now, it appears no one does.

"Nationwide, the incidents are up tremendously because [e-scooters] become so prevalent," Dr. Bregier said.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports there were 3,300 scooter injuries in 2016.

"I hit the trolley track and I flew off the scooter and hit my head," said a Dallas woman.

The concern isn't just for the helmet-less rider.

"What I've seen is about 8 percent of scooter injuries are actually pedestrians who have been hit," Dr. Bregier added.

He says most injuries, about 25 percent, are to the head and face.  

"You're going fast, you fall and hit your head, your brain bounces off the sides of your skull," he explained.

Alan Sussman wants to see stricter scooter enforcement. For instance, a law that mirrors the city of Seattle's.

"The only city in our country that has a helmet bike law to require a safety helmet regardless of age," Sussman told city council members.