Right, but it gives you the most stable shot at braking because the point of rotation of the scooter is the front wheel, and if you can brake with your front le

Right, but it gives you the most stable shot at braking because the point of rotation of the scooter is the front wheel, and if you can brake with your front leg up against the nook of the steering column, you can support your deceleration pretty much in a straight line against that point, which is approximately as good as it gets. And even if you can't take that, you can still hipbrace the steering bar, which gives you almost as good a line - and even if you go flying, you'll probably be rotating around your feet which means you'll frontal facecheck the ground. Which is bad, but: if you're standing upright, then it's your terribly angled arms against the handlebars that have to take approximately half the deceleration force, which means you rapidly cross the point where your mass is above that line through the point of rotation, and then the steering bar basically flips your head against the ground with bonus rotational velocity. At which point you will take spinal damage, helmet or not. Effectively, the easiest way to check is if someone's front foot is either set well forward, or at an inward angle. Either is fine. If it's set forward, you can brake with a line through your foot (best case, but an exhausting pose); if it's at an inward angle, you automatically end up braking with your thigh against the steering column (second best case). If it's straight and upright, then you're in danger. Effectively, I'm not disagreeing, I'm saying I think scooters are primarily dangerous because on top of what you're saying, people also ride them in a horrifyingly unsafe way.