LAKE FOREST, CA \u2014 A surge of e-bike and e-motorcycle crashes involving children has Orange County reeling with many residents left wondering what the next steps should be. <\/p>\n
At Providence Mission Hospital, Dr. Tetsuya Takeuchi told Patch that trauma incidents involving e-bikes and children have reached unprecedented numbers. <\/p>\n
In 2025, there was a total of 255 e-bike-related traumas treated at Providence Mission Hospital, and most of those patients were children, with 75 percent of those cases being boys and 25 percent of those cases being girls.<\/p>\n
Twenty-one of those incidents involved adults ages 55 and higher, 105 of those incidents involved adults from 18-54 and 129 of those incidents involved children, Takeuchi said. <\/p>\n
As of 2026, e-bike-related incidents contribute to much of Providence Mission Hospital’s trauma cases.<\/p>\n
Local authorities said the boy may have hit the center median on Magnolia Street near Larson, resulting in the crash. <\/p>\n
Authorities did not say whether the child was wearing a helmet nor what his rate of speed was. <\/p>\n
Takeuchi said most e-bike trauma cases for both children and adults involve head and neck injuries \u2014 a statistic that could change, he said, if more of Orange County’s bike-riding population wore helmets. <\/p>\n
“People land on their head when they\u2019re falling, so you would think that wearing one is a no brainer for an e-bike,” Takeuchi said. “At the same time, when we look at helmet use, we are up to 60 percent in my center, meaning 40 percent don\u2019t wear one.”<\/p>\n
Mainly, its the adults failing to wear their helmets, Takeuchi said.<\/p>\n
“We noticed that if we separate kids and adults, kids are pretty compliant [with wearing helmets],” Takeuchi said. “But the adult population isn’t wearing helmets.”<\/p>\n
If more bike-riding adults wore helmets consistently, Takeuchi believes more children would follow suit.<\/p>\n
“It doesn’t matter how much you tell your kids to have their helmet on,” he said. “If they see you without your helmet on, they aren’t going to take it seriously.”<\/p>\n
While wearing a helmet is ideal, Takeuchi said it’s only the first step in addressing the ongoing issue of e-bike injuries and deaths. <\/p>\n
Education regarding the different classes of e-bikes and e-motorcycles, government regulations and more are instrumental in shifting the tides against the ongoing rate of injuries and deaths. <\/p>\n
“I understand that parents naturally want the most expensive tools for their kids \u2014 assuming it’s the highest class, so it must be better,” Takeuchi said. “In the e-bike territory, it’s different.”<\/p>\n
“What we generally see is that parents are inclined to buy classes two and three, not knowing that class three e-bikes are illegal for people under the age of 17. They need to pay attention to what they actually buy their kids.”<\/p>\n
It’s such a slight distinction, but it’s of high importance for kids and parents alike for safety and legal reasons.<\/p>\n