![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/JFAPNWYYGJBLBLAN4JNNJN5ECQ.jpg\")
A juvenile riding his e-bike on the Strand in Hermosa Beach, California on Nov. 10, 2023. (Mel Melcon\/Los Angeles Times\/TNS) <\/p>\nA juvenile riding his e-bike on the Strand in Hermosa Beach, California on Nov. 10, 2023. (Mel Melcon\/Los Angeles Times\/TNS) <\/p>\n
LOS ANGELES – Signs of the exploding popularity of e-bikes are everywhere.<\/p>\n
Riders are showing up in massive groups at the beach, kids are popping wheelies on quiet residential roads and scores of others are showing up in emergency rooms with cuts, broken bones or worse.<\/p>\n
An 81-year-old was allegedly killed in Lake Forest after a 14-year-old crashed into him after he was spotted doing wheelies. In Yorba Linda, a 12-year-old was critically injured while riding a modified e-motorcycle. In Oceanside, a rider fled from police in a chase that reached speeds up to 50 mph and, in Huntington Beach a man was attacked after riding his scooter through a crowd of more than 100 young e-bike riders.<\/p>\n
Now, with graduations underway and summer around the corner, police across the state are looking for ways to pump the brakes on dangerous e-bike riding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf these bikes are not treated with respect and care, it could be just as dangerous as handing over a firearm,\u201d said Officer Brandon Pon, a collision investigator with the Los Angeles Police Department.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just risky riding that\u2019s raised concerns. Online videos show riders how to easily modify bikes to increase speeds. Police said some bikes that are marketed for kids are more akin to motorcycles, reaching speeds of up to 50 mph. Some parents are unaware of the difference between e-bikes and e-motorcycles, police said, while others are knowingly handing over the fast, dangerous bikes to young and inexperienced riders.<\/p>\n
The fast bikes, some of them illegal to use if the rider is not licensed, are easy to find and in April, California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned<\/a> sellers, manufacturers and consumers that modified e-bikes, and those that exceed state regulations may be illegal for unlicensed riders.<\/p>\n Weeks later, Amazon de-listed several electric motorcycles from purchase in California, and law enforcement officials are looking for other ways to cut down on illegal riding before summer.<\/p>\n In Orange County, District Attorney Todd Spitzer has created a specialized unit to go after dangerous riders, including minors, and begun charging parents, too.<\/p>\n \u201cIf parents refuse to hold their children accountable, then I am going to hold parents accountable when they knowingly break the law,\u201d Spitzer said in a statement. \u201cThere is absolutely no reason a child should be handed the keys to a motorcycle and be sent on their way without training, without a license, and without the maturity to handle that kind of responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n In San Diego, the risks and dangers have grown to a point where on May 28, the county\u2019s health department issued a notice warning doctors about the increasing number of e-bike related injuries.<\/p>\n The County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency recommended physicians to encourage helmet use and counseled parents about the differences between e-bikes, the risks of riding in tandem, and local and state laws.<\/p>\n But with few regulations on the books and companies designing some to look like motorcycles, interest in e-bikes has surged. At first, they were spotted in more affluent communities, with the cost of e-bikes ranging anywhere between $1,000 to $6,000 for stock models.<\/p>\n But soon they started to be spotted everywhere.<\/p>\n And the casualties connected to e-bikes are mounting.<\/p>\n In Orange County, an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran died in a collision with a 14-year-old on an e-bike. Last month, a 12-year-old riding an e-bike was seriously injured after colliding with a Tesla in San Diego. In Sacramento County, a 60-year-old nurse died in a collision with a teen on a biking path.<\/p>\n Along with these incidents, a whole other set of issues arise when riders post a call for a \u201crideout\u201d on social media, which can trigger a gathering of dozens of riders or more.<\/p>\n Law enforcement officials said the large crowds can be known to get rowdy, block large streets as they ride en mass and in a few occasions turned violent.<\/p>\n Sam El-Said, a 51-year-old from Huntington Beach, was attacked by several young men May 9 after he and his wife rode their e-scooters through a crowd of more than 100 people on e-bikes. Two minors have been arrested.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they get in these packs they get brazen,\u201d El-Said said. \u201cI can\u2019t tell what provoked them, but I know I\u2019m not the only one that\u2019s experienced these types of things.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s seen the large crowd of e-bike riders gather regularly near the beach, he said, on the weekends and summer months.<\/p>\n \u201cThese kids will ride down the street and play chicken with cars,\u201d he said. \u201cThey just go out there and wreck havoc.\u201d<\/p>\n Summertime will likely bring more riders out, and police are trying to get as much information and education out to the public as they can before to prevent more injuries on the street, Pon said.<\/p>\n Part of the issue, Pon said, is that parents are unaware to the types of e-bikes that are being purchased and instead providing teenagers with e-motorcycles and dirt bikes.<\/p>\n E-bikes in California are split into three classifications, depending on features and maximum speeds.<\/p>\n Class 1 bicycles have an electric motor that engages only when manual pedals are used, with a maximum motor speed of 20 mph. Class 2 bicycles also provide electrical power up to 20 mph, but have a throttle that can be used without using the pedals. Class 3 e-bikes are similar to Class 1 pedal bicycles, but have a maximum speed of 28 mph, and the rider must be over 16 years of age.<\/p>\n But electric cycles that can boost power past 28 mph, have a motor stronger than 750 watts or do not have pedals are not legally considered e-bikes in California, according to the California Department of Justice. Those vehicles are instead considered either electric mopeds or motorcycles, and are required to be registered with the DMV and the rider to have a motorcycle license.<\/p>\n Bikes must have a label that identifies what class of e-bike they are, and the California Department of Justice earlier this month warned retailers<\/a> that misrepresenting electric motorcycles as e-bikes is a crime.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to get this out there because I do believe that most of these collisions, for the large part, they\u2019re likely preventable,\u201d Pon said.<\/p>\n On May 10, after the warning went out, Amazon agreed to stop selling e-bikes<\/a> that went over the state\u2019s limit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in the process of removing e-bike listings that do not comply with California speed limit regulations,\u201d the company confirmed to The Times in an email.<\/p>\n The young age of riders, and the speeds that can be reached by e-bikes and e-motorcycles can become a deadly combination, said Dr. Alan Nager, from Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \u201cThey go faster than regular bikes, they\u2019re heavier, they\u2019re more difficult to maneuver and they require additional coordination and awareness,\u201d Nager said.<\/p>\n As director of emergency and transport medicine at the hospital, Nager said he\u2019s seen the impact and risks of the electric bicycles first hand, and they\u2019re showing up in the emergency room more often.<\/p>\n For the past three years, Nager said, the number of kids and teenagers admitted to Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles with e-bike related injuries has doubled each year.<\/p>\n In 2023, the hospital recorded eight patients with e-bike related injuries, Nager said. In 2024, the hospital saw 16 patients and, in 2025, 36 injured riders were admitted. So far this year, Nager said, the hospital has seen 21 patients with e-bike injuries through the first five months of the year.<\/p>\n The hospital also sees several patients that are injured from traditional pedal bike accidents, Nager said, but e-bike riders tend to suffer more severe and serious injuries, a fact he attributes to the speed of the bikes.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a relationship between higher speed, less coordination and more chances of an accident,\u201d Nager said.<\/p>\n Quantifying exactly how many crashes, injuries and fatalities occur is a challenge, however. Multiple law enforcement agencies still classify e-bike crashes with pedal bike accidents, and the recent appearance of e-bikes has made data difficult to collect.<\/p>\n \u201cSpecifically, incident and crash reporting is seldom specific enough to indicate these bike types, with e-bike crashes often recorded as bicycle crashes, and e-scooters often recorded as pedestrian crashes,\u201d a spokesperson for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a statement.<\/p>\n One study by San Jose University\u2019s Mineta Transportation Institute<\/a> published in December found that data was hard to collect for the same reason. It found, however, that according to the National Fatality Analysis Reporting System, at least 154 fatal e-bike crashes had been recorded between 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LKDXVWVD3RDFLN2PYFJ6HG434E.jpg\")
Tommi Jo Mejer, center, 50, exits court with attorneys Paul S. Meyer and Lolita Kirk after appearing at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, California on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. Mejer is facing involuntary manslaughter charges after an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran injured in a Lake Forest e-motorcycle collision died. Mejer\u2019s son was riding the e-motorcycle. (Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times\/TNS) <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/24TLA72KQFCEJKVZ4HRORRNBMU.jpg\")
A group of mostly illegal dirt bike and powerful e-motorcycle riders taking over the streets of downtown Los Angeles as they ride in and out of traffic, often doing tricks, on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. (Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times\/TNS) <\/p>\n