ST PETERSBURG, Fla. – Law enforcement says they’ve seen a spike in e-bike crashes across the area lately.
Courtesy: St. Petersburg Police Department
The backstory:
Deputies in Pinellas County are investigating an e-bike crash that left a 67-year-old man with life-threatening injuries. Investigators say the man riding the e-bike didn’t stop at a stop sign and collided with a truck in Dunedin Tuesday. This crash unfortunately isn’t alone. Officials say the number of e-bike crashes continues to go up across the Bay Area.
“Unfortunately, in the past month, we’ve had seven fatalities and half of them have been e-bikes,” said Lieutenant Jason Levey of St. Petersburg Police’s traffic section says, “Almost half of them have been e-bikes.”
Courtesy: St. Petersburg Police Department
Lt. Levey said out of the seven traffic fatalities in the past month, three have involved e-bikes. He said in those three recent crashes, investigators found the e-bike riders at fault.
“One failed to stop at a stop sign. One ran a red light, and the other one was riding in the wrong lane of travel. They were going southbound in the northbound lane,” he said.
What they’re saying:
“Unfortunately, there’s no pattern. It’s a city-wide problem, a county-wide, a state-wide problem that’s going on, and we’re addressing the issue the best as we can. And we just ask the community and the people that are riding these devices to pay attention, because when you’re in a vehicle, you’re doing everything you can as a motorist, but when you have somebody whipping in and out of traffic, you can only do so much,” Lt. Levey said.
He said there isn’t any age requirement and e-bikers don’t always follow the rules of the road.
“It’s just easy to maneuver and get around town. However, there comes responsibility. You need to follow the laws, because if you’re on the road, you operate as a vehicle. If you’re on the sidewalk, you operate as a pedestrian, but you can’t go more than. The e-bikes cannot go more than 28 miles an hour or 750 watts. If so, they’re treated as a motorcycle and need to be registered as such,” Lt. Levey said.
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If you’re riding an e-bike on the sidewalk, you also have to pedal manually, Lt. Levey said.
A new state law gives cities and towns more power to regulate e-bikes. Lieutenant Levey says so far, he hasn’t heard of any local regulations in St. Pete.
“There are rules on the books. People need to be responsible and especially if they’re juveniles, or, you know, children under the age of 18 riding these things, parents need to be responsible when they purchase them to make sure they know what they’re getting for their children,” he said.
Just like you can put new engines in cars, Lt. Levey said you can also do the same and upgrade e-bikes to make them go faster than the legal limit.
He says they’re going to continue to get the word out about safety when it comes to not just e-bikes, but pedestrian, vehicle and motorcycle safety.
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The Source: This story was written with information provided by SPPD, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and the Tarpon Springs Police Department.