{"id":464237,"date":"2026-09-15T07:28:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T07:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/464237\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T07:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T07:28:18","slug":"orange-countys-first-e-bike-buyback-event-draws-huge-crowd-hundreds-of-vehicles-san-gabriel-valley-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/464237\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County\u2019s first e-bike buyback event draws huge crowd, hundreds of vehicles \u2013 San Gabriel Valley Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jesse Hayes, 20, spent three months on life support after being struck by a car while riding his e-bike. Nearly two years later, he said he still struggles to play the guitar and walks with a knee brace to prevent hyperextension.<\/p>\n

On Sunday morning, Hayes was the first among hundreds of people to turn in their electric vehicles at a buyback event at Angel Stadium. Accompanied by his family, Hayes said he wants to share his story so that other young people can be aware of the dangers of e-bike riding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want people to know these crashes happen a lot more than most people think, and how horrible they are,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>\n

The program, hosted by the Orange County District Attorney\u2019s office, allowed participants to surrender e-bikes, e-motorcycles, e-scooters and pocket bikes for up to $1,000 in gift cards from Target, Walmart and Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods. The first 75 people to exchange vehicles received a pair of tickets to an Angels game.<\/p>\n

The county had $110,000 worth of gift cards available on a first-come, first-served basis, officials said. Many of the vehicles surrendered on Sunday were Class 1 and Class 2 bikes that have a maximum motor-assisted speed of 20 miles per hour, and could be cashed in for gift cards of between $300 to $400.<\/p>\n

Some of families began lining up at the crack of dawn. Amy Kaur and her two teenage sons drove from Fontana at 6 a.m. and were among the first to participate in the exchange four hours later.<\/p>\n

\"There<\/p>\n

There were lots of bike owners hoping to take advantage of the OC District Attorney\u2019s Office first countywide e-bike buyback Sunday, Sept. 13, at Angel Stadium. The event offered participants gift cards from $200 to $1,000.(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Officers<\/p>\n

Officers gather serial numbers of the bike hoping take advantage of the OC District Attorney\u2019s Office first countywide e-bike buyback Sunday, Sept. 13, at Angel Stadium. The event offered participants gift cards from $200 to $1,000.(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"There<\/p>\n

There were lots of bike owners hoping to take advantage of the OC District Attorney\u2019s Office first countywide e-bike buyback Sunday, Sept. 13, at Angel Stadium. The event offered participants gift cards from $200 to $1,000.(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Kimberly<\/p>\n

Kimberly Roll of Riverside gets in line with her two bikes hoping to take advantage of the OC District Attorney\u2019s Office first countywide e-bike buyback Sunday, Sept. 13, at Angel Stadium. The event offered participants gift cards from $200 to $1,000.(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Bike<\/p>\n

Bike riders each bring an extra bike hoping to take advantage of the OC District Attorney\u2019s Office first countywide e-bike buyback Sunday, Sept. 13, at Angel Stadium. The event offered participants gift cards from $200 to $1,000.(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Orange<\/p>\n

Orange County Board of Supervisor Katrina Foley watches as Jesse Hayes helps Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer guide his e-bike to be the first to take advantage of the OC District Attorney\u2019s Office first countywide e-bike buyback Sunday, Sept. 13, at Angel Stadium. The event offered participants gift cards from $200 to $1,000.(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"There<\/p>\n

There were lots of bike owners hoping to take advantage of the OC District Attorney\u2019s Office first countywide e-bike buyback Sunday, Sept. 13, at Angel Stadium. The event offered participants gift cards from $200 to $1,000.(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Sara<\/p>\n

Sara Thomas of Corona was number 114 in line to take advantage of the OC District Attorney\u2019s Office first countywide e-bike buyback Sunday, Sept. 13, at Angel Stadium. The event offered participants gift cards from $200 to $1,000.(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Shelby<\/p>\n

Shelby waits with her owner hoping to take advantage of the OC District Attorney\u2019s Office first countywide e-bike buyback Sunday, Sept. 13, at Angel Stadium. The event offered participants gift cards from $200 to $1,000.(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"There<\/p>\n

There were lots of bike owners hoping to take advantage of the OC District Attorney\u2019s Office first countywide e-bike buyback Sunday, Sept. 13, at Angel Stadium. The event offered participants gift cards from $200 to $1,000.(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Bikes<\/p>\n

Bikes is all conditions were in the right place at the OC District Attorney\u2019s Office first countywide e-bike buyback Sunday, Sept. 13, at Angel Stadium. The event offered participants gift cards from $200 to $1,000.(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jesse<\/p>\n

Jesse Hayes and his mother Kasey Hayes are the first take advantage of the OC District Attorney\u2019s Office first countywide e-bike buyback Sunday, Sept. 13, at Angel Stadium. The event offered participants gift cards from $200 to $1,000.(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 12<\/p>\n

There were lots of bike owners hoping to take advantage of the OC District Attorney\u2019s Office first countywide e-bike buyback Sunday, Sept. 13, at Angel Stadium. The event offered participants gift cards from $200 to $1,000.(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Arsh and Harvin Singh, who are 15 and 13, said they wanted to give up their e-motos because of how frequently they\u2019ve been hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been in multiple crashes; we\u2019ve fallen many times,\u201d Arsh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTell them about my fingers,\u201d their friend and neighbor, Jesse Guerrero, interjected.<\/p>\n

Guerrero, 11, said he sustained serious injuries when he crashed his modified e-bike this summer, including shredded kneecaps and severed fingertips that required a dozen stitches. He said he had been cruising at 40 miles per hour on a local street.<\/p>\n

Though Guerrero said he\u2019ll dearly miss the bike, he recognizes the danger it poses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t use that hand,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s first e-bike buyback comes amid a spike in related injuries, fatalities and prosecutions<\/a> across the state that experts have described as an epidemic.<\/p>\n

The number of e-bike crashes in California surged from 48 in 2020 to 1,366 in 2025, according to California Highway Patrol data. Reported crashes in Orange County rose from 34 to 347 in that time frame, including three fatalities. Kolby Aipa, a 20-year-old Huntington Beach surfer, died last year<\/a> after colliding with a truck while riding his e-bike.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big crisis in our county,\u201d said Dr. Laura Goodman, trauma medical director and pediatric surgeon at Rady Children\u2019s Hospital of Orange County. \u201cWe usually see at least two victims of e-bike crashes coming into our hospital every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since last year, Goodman said, e-bikes have become the leading cause of trauma activations at her hospital, which happens when a patient\u2019s condition is severe enough to require the service of a larger team. Head, neck and facial injuries, as well as bone fractures, are among the most common injuries associated with e-bikes, she said.<\/p>\n

Children aged 11 to 14 account for nearly two-thirds of e-motorcycle crashes even though they\u2019re legally prohibited from riding the vehicle, according to the California Statewide Integrated Traffic Record System (SWITRS).<\/p>\n

\u201cThese vehicles are not child\u2019s play, and the consequences are incredibly dangerous and increasingly deadly,\u201d Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a press release about the buyback. \u201cThis event is sparking conversations about E-Bike and E-Moto safety like never before, and those conversations will hopefully lead to increased rider responsibility, education, and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spitzer has ramped up enforcement on reckless riding, prosecuting parents whose children were involved in serious or fatal e-bike crashes and creating a new unit to investigate potential criminal charges<\/a>. His office has filed child endangerment charges against four parents this year, including a mother whose 14-year-old son was accused of fatally striking<\/a> an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran. She could be facing up to seven years and eight months in state prison if convicted.<\/p>\n

Some parents who showed up Sunday said the event was an important way to increase public knowledge about e-bike use. Krista Carrillo, who drove from Hawthorne at 7.30 a.m., surrendered an e-bike she bought for her 16-year-old daughter. She said she hadn\u2019t been aware of the many safety concerns associated with the vehicle when she made the purchase, particularly for teens and young adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we got it, I didn\u2019t realize what we were in for,\u201d Carrillo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jesse Hayes, 20, spent three months on life support after being struck by a car while riding his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,723,100],"class_list":["post-464237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-crime","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464237","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=464237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}