Dr. Ryan Spurrier<\/a>, director of trauma surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, said injuries involving children on e-bikes are increasing dramatically.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/19632820_marc-brown-doctor-TN-img.png\"\/)
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“I think we’re projecting to be about 700% more than we saw just three years ago,” Spurrier said.<\/p>\n
The injuries can be severe, he said.<\/p>\n
“Those include injuries from head to toe, traumatic brain injuries, liver lacerations, broken bones and spines,” Spurrier said.<\/p>\n
He described the trend as a pediatric health emergency.<\/p>\n
“Have there been fatalities her at Children’s Hospital that have been related to e-bikes,” ABC7 Anchor Marc Brown asked Spurrier.<\/p>\n
“Certainly, and across Southern California and across the country,” Spurrier replied.<\/p>\n
In early May, 13-year-old Benson Nguyen was killed while riding an e-motorcycle. Nguyen was traveling about 35 mph when he struck a center median and was ejected.<\/p>\n
He was wearing a standard bicycle helmet, which did not protect him. The e-motorcycle he was riding was not street legal.<\/p>\n
Authorities have also highlighted risks to pedestrians. In April, 81-year-old Ed Ashman was killed after being struck by an e-bike ridden by a 14-year-old in Lake Forest.<\/p>\n
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The slowest e-bikes travel between 18 and 23 mph, and videos posted online demonstrate how some riders can modify e-bikes to reach speeds of up to 50 mph.<\/p>\n
Aliza Nichols, founder of the nonprofit organization It Needs to End, said education is critical to preventing crashes. She said many young riders lack experience riding e-bikes.<\/p>\n
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“These kids get them and assume they know what they’re doing. But truthfully, they have no training on two wheels with a motor at all,” she said.<\/p>\n
Despite her concerns, Nichols said she does not support banning e-bikes.<\/p>\n
“If you could wave a magic wand and ban these, would you?” Brown asked Nichols.<\/p>\n
“Absolutely not,” she said.<\/p>\n
Nichols, who comes from a family of motorcycle riders, said the focus should be on safe riding practices.<\/p>\n
“If you love it, you love it. There is no getting it out of your spirit. If you like being on two wheels, you just love doing it. I just think they need to know how to do it safe,” he said.<\/p>\n
Her organization provides safety training at middle schools and advises lawmakers on legislation aimed at improving e-bike safety.<\/p>\n
Spurrier said parents also play an important role in preventing injuries.<\/p>\n
“The common sense dictates that if you wouldn’t let your child ride a motorcycle, don’t buy them an e-bike,” he said.<\/p>\n
Raquel Waters, now 15, said her experience changed her perspective on e-bikes.<\/p>\n
“Do you think you’ll ever get on another one,” Brown asked the teen.<\/p>\n
“No. Absolutely not,” she said.<\/p>\n
As students head back to school, some local school districts are requiring riders to complete safety training and wear helmets rated for motorized bicycles.<\/p>\n
Standard bicycle helmets do not meet those requirements. Parents are encouraged to check district rules before the school year begins.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A Los Angeles-area teenager who was critically injured last year in an electric bicycle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[169642,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-425433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-169642","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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