A collision with a ute while on his e-scooter left her son with a fractured pelvis, internal bleeding and a large bump to the head, but Riana Grobbelaar fears it would have been much worse had he not been wearing a helmet.
By Melanie Earley for RNZ
Her son, 15, has spent more than a week in hospital following the incident, which occurred while he was out delivering newspapers in Greymouth on August 29.
"My son delivers papers on the main road, State Highway 6, in the Paroa area. He crosses that main road a few times and the speed goes from 100km/h to 80 so vehicles coming in to Paroa area go quite fast.
"He said he was waiting to cross and looked and didn't see anything, but after that he woke up with a lot of people around him.
"He can't remember what exactly happened."
Despite the injuries her son did receive, Grobbelaar believed if he hadn't been wearing a helmet he would've ended up with a serious head injury - or worse.
Doctors had been looking at whether he had a concussion, which could account for his memory loss.
"His helmet took a big hit. That was a rule in our house: no helmet, no scooter. He was really lucky, but he has a slow and long road to recovery.
"The helmet is full of bumps and scratches through the side."
Grobbelaar decided to speak out after seeing RNZ's earlier coverage of a psychologist calling for helmets to be made compulsory for e-scooter riders in New Zealand.
The e-scooter was wrecked, along with a puffer jacket he had been wearing which had helped prevent more extensive bruising and cuts on his upper body.
Her son was using crutches and a wheelchair, and the family had spent Thursday having a ramp installed at the house for him.
Grobbelaar said she didn't want any other families to go through what hers had been through.
Seeing other young people riding around Greymouth without helmets since the accident worried her, especially given the speed they were able to go at.
"A lot of the kids are driving on pathways and the speed they are driving at... a vehicle could just back out of their driveway and imagine what accident that could cause."
ACC figures released earlier this year have shown claims for e-scooter injuries are on the rise, with children and young people among the most affected.
Earlier this week psychologist Chris Parsons told Morning Report he was one of many people in the industry who believed attitudes towards e-scooter safety were generally too relaxed.
He said the country's legislation was lagging behind other countries.
"In Australia, it's mandatory to wear a helmet on an e-scooter.
"Queensland is looking at bringing in a range of measures, including the possibility that you have to have a learner's licence and have to be over 16 before you ride an e-scooter. We're in a situation where the law has to catch up with technology."
He said there needed to be nationwide social education, particularly for young people, to prevent more "catastrophic" e-scooter accidents.
"For anyone with a serious brain injury, we're looking at long-term rehabilitation and sometimes lifelong effects. The consequences are very serious.
"The brain is a very soft organ, the consistency of tofu, inside a bony structure of the skull, and people are moving at speed on an e-scooter and if it suddenly stops the brain keeps moving with catastrophic results."
ACC paid out almost $16 million for scooter-related injuries in 2025, an increase of about 10%on the year prior. Just over $1.2 million had been paid out in January 2026.
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