Concern about e-bikes \u2014 from reckless riders to dangerous roads to poor protections \u2014 had been growing among traffic investigators and emergency room doctors watching injuries and deathstick up.<\/p>\n
Those weeks still haunt Dr. Patrick Mularoni, a pediatric emergency room physician at All Children\u2019s Hospital in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a single two-week period, we had 12 trauma alerts related to e-bikes,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s seldom that something changes your work environment to this extent, and this is a paradigm shift in what we do in emergency medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Efforts to better educate drivers, track deaths and crack down on children riding e-bikes recklessly didn\u2019t stem the streak of crashes.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay families have mourned more than two dozen deaths related to e-bike crashes over the last five years. Experts say a mix of lawmakers\u2019 slow response, poor cycling infrastructure and deadly e-bike speeds have bred a dangerous environment for pedestrians and cyclists alike.<\/p>\n
Some officials are hopeful that the state government, which has been slow to regulate e-bikes, will pass a bill this year that would codify safety rules already adopted by most other states.<\/p>\n
The lack of state and local laws governing e-bikes means law enforcement can do little to curb bad behavior. Talks about escalating enforcement have stirred concern among residents who remember when Tampa police once wielded bike citations to target Black neighborhoods<\/a>.<\/p>\n E-bike proponents say those in favor of more regulation are missing a crucial point: E-bikes, a vastly cheaper and greener option compared to cars, have the potential to unclog the region\u2019s overcrowded streets.<\/p>\n The scale of the e-bike problem is also unknowable, since crash data is murky and many agencies have only just started tallying fatalities.<\/p>\n But emergency room doctors say they have seen enough to understand the scope. Electric bikes and scooters now pose the biggest emerging risk for traumatic injury, said Dr. Eric Shamas, an emergency room physician at Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital. Last year, the hospital logged 513 emergency rooms visits related to electric bikes and scooters.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re ubiquitous, and we have not figured out how to manage them,\u201d Shamas said. \u201cIt\u2019s like we have an invasive species. We never planned on it. They\u2019re here now. They\u2019re not going away.\u201d<\/p>\n Gaps in data make it difficult to count exactly how many people have died on e-bikes in Tampa Bay. State crash reports lump in e-biker deaths with bicyclists. Conflicting definitions of what counts as an e-bike further obscures crash data.<\/p>\n The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, an agency tasked with tracking crashes, defines a bike fatality<\/a> as a person who died \u201cwhile operating a vehicle propelled solely by human power or a motorized bicycle \u2026 rated at 200 watts or less.\u201d<\/p>\n State law offers a different view: E-bikes with motors as powerful as 750 watts are still considered a type of bicycle, as long as top speeds are capped at 28 mph. But police and medical experts say these bikes are easily modified by children and adults to reach speeds greater than 55 mph, making them more akin to electric motorcycles. It also means some e-bike deaths are recorded as motorcycle fatalities, muddying the already scant data on crashes.<\/p>\n Severe injuries resulting from a high-speed e-bike collision more closely resemble a motorcycle crash than a bicycle crash, Shamas said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt may not be a gasoline engine,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a motorcycle injury, and they should be treated exactly the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n While nonfatal crash numbers remain a mystery, a patchwork of data from hospitals, law enforcement departments, transportation planning agencies and medical examiner\u2019s offices across the Tampa Bay region shows the tally ofe-bike deaths is rising.<\/p>\n In Pinellas County, one of the deadliest places in Florida for bicyclists, 18 people have died riding e-bikes over the last five years, a Tampa Bay Times analysis found.<\/p>\n Three people in Pasco and six in Hillsborough were killed on e-bikes during the same time frame, according to county medical examiner\u2019s offices.<\/p>\n In 2024, five people were killed riding \u201cmicro-mobility devices,\u201d which could be an e-bike or e-scooter, in Pinellas. Last year, fatal crashes doubled.<\/p>\n At the urging of county transportation officials, St. Petersburg police began tracking e-bike deaths separately from other bicycle and scooter deaths in September. The agency also launched a more aggressive campaign to educate drivers and cyclists on busy roads, said Lt. Jason Levey, who leads the agency\u2019s traffic division.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just a city of St. Pete problem. It\u2019s countywide, statewide, nationwide, because of the ease \u2014 you can get these on Amazon, you can get them wherever, and they\u2019re relatively inexpensive,\u201d Levey said.<\/p>\n A post-pandemic explosion of e-bike sales coincided with an \u201cexponential\u201d increase in crashes, according to a study published last year in the National Library of Medicine<\/a>. Researchers saw a 90% uptick in injuries nationwide from 2019 to 2022.<\/p>\n More people working from home meant fewer long commutes by car. It opened up a niche that e-bikes quickly filled, said Forrest Fleming, a customer service manager at Tampa Bay E-Bikes in South Tampa. And they\u2019re here to stay, he added.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2026, this is going to be a $20 to $30 billion industry. You wouldn\u2019t have thought that three or four years ago,\u201d Fleming said. \u201cI don\u2019t see it slowing down.\u201d<\/p>\n The wave of e-bikes flooding Tampa\u2019s streets, trails and sidewalks caught many by surprise, he added.<\/p>\n \u201cInfrastructure-wise, the city wasn\u2019t really ready for as many bikes that came onto the market,\u201d Fleming said.<\/p>\n On a recent foggy Sunday morning, Tampa City Councilmember Lynn Hurtak and a dozenothers saddled bicycles and e-bikes at Henry and Ola Park.<\/p>\n Hurtak, detailing the riding rulesto her group, strapped on a helmet and fastened a backpack with a patch declaring a \u201cwar on cars.\u201d She hosts a ride like this every other weekend to teach residents how to patch together the city\u2019s disjointed and isolated bike networks.<\/p>\n Over 12 miles through the heart of the city, Hurtak showed the good \u2014 like a new flashing light at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Ola Avenue that drew cheers as the group bounded across the intersection \u2014 and the bad. The point of this ride, Hurtak explained, would be learning how to safely cross the narrow pedestrian bridge to Davis Islands.<\/p>\n Tampa\u2019s patchwork of bike lanes means cyclists often have to make a decision on the fly when they run out of road, Hurtak said. She expects the city\u2019s bike culture will develop at the same time its burgeoning infrastructure takes shape. Educating road users, including e-bikers, will help during that transition, Hurtak said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt all hinges on people being reasonable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Paula Flores, 61, spent her youth racing road bikes around New York City. Her pace has slowed as she hasaged, and Hurtak\u2019s rides are plenty fast for her now. Two summers ago was Tampa\u2019s hottest on record<\/a>, and she found herself in the emergency room with heat stroke after a ride.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was traumatic. It was like six months of no riding, and I was in doctor\u2019s appointments and with cardiologists and all that stuff. My solution was this,\u201d Flores said, gesturing to her glossy black beach cruiser. \u201cIt was an e-bike.\u201d<\/p>\n She has already racked up 1,200 miles and hopes to crack 3,000 this year. Flores, a retired transportation engineer who volunteers as the social media manager for nonprofit Walk Bike Tampa, knows the city\u2019s bike network needs work. But she\u2019s sympathetic to city staff who do their best on a tight budget, she said.<\/p>\n Austin Britt runs the city\u2019s e-bike voucher program, an initiative aimed at getting people out of gas-guzzling cars and onto green, affordable electric bikes. While wrapping this year\u2019s voucher lottery, which will disperse $570,000 to prospective e-bikers, he\u2019s also been tallying the good that the program has done.<\/p>\n Three out of five residents who got e-bikes in recent years said they rode it to work at least three days a week, he said.<\/p>\n \u201dWe collect data on the usage of the bike \u2014 where they\u2019re going, how far their trips are \u2014 so we can start getting an idea of the carbon offset and the footprint that we\u2019re saving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Other cities already have a good idea of that environmental benefit: A 2019 study conducted in Portland, Oregon<\/a> estimated that a 15% increase in e-bikes could lead to an 11% decrease in carbon emissions across the city.<\/p>\n All 248 residents who receive a voucher this year will be required to go home with a helmet. Bike shops partnering with the city on vouchers must perform a mandatory safety demonstration.<\/p>\n Those efforts won\u2019t guarantee safe behavior, said Tampa mobility director Brandon Campbell, so safety will need to be a constant drumbeat.<\/p>\n The last time Rosita Hubbard saw her father was a blur.<\/p>\n She was swamped with preparations for open enrollment week at her insurance company in St. Petersburg. Sterling Hubbard, a 73-year-old Air Force veteran with a square jaw and short-cropped hair, was picking up a cell phone she had bought him before he zipped toward home on his electric bicycle.<\/p>\n Hubbard had sold his Hyundai soon after he moved to Florida in April to be closer to his adult children. His reaction time had slowed in his golden years, he told them. Drivers running traffic lights and cutting him off became a constant gripe.<\/p>\n That September afternoon, his daughterasked Hubbard if he wanted to ride home after work. He needed to change into his church clothes before they met again for Wednesday worship. He would take his e-bike, he told her.<\/p>\n Rosita Hubbard doesn\u2019t remember how much time had passed before she heard the sirens. It couldn\u2019t have been more than five minutes, because her father was struck and killed by a driver with a suspended license less than half a mile from her office.<\/p>\n Local crash investigators have ruled nearly all e-bike deaths in recent years as cyclists\u2019 fault, according to crash reports reviewed by the Times. But transportation experts highlight sparse regulation, lacking bike lanes and unclear traffic rules as failures that put cyclists at risk.<\/p>\n The majority of recorded deaths in Pinellas and Pasco counties were men over 60 who were not wearing a helmet. Most were struck by cars, but a handful simply took a bad fall. Young children and older adults, who often lack fine motor skills that electric vehicles demand, are particularly at risk, medical experts said.<\/p>\n Hubbard was wearing his helmet, yet the impact fractured his skull, pelvis and both arms. Crash investigators estimated the black Nissan Sentrathat struck him was moving about 30 mph. The collision sent his bike skidding 110 feet down the road.<\/p>\n St. Petersburg police arrested the driver, who was on probation following a guilty plea for aggravated assault after striking her brother and another woman with a car two years ago.<\/p>\n The driver told police Hubbard had run a red light. Camera footage confirmed her story, investigators found, and she was not charged in connection with Hubbard\u2019s death.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was by the book,\u201d Rosita Hubbard said of her father. \u201cSo to say, \u2018Oh, he just ran a red light.\u2019 I couldn\u2019t imagine that.\u201d<\/p>\n Julie Taylor got a call from her mother on the night her father was killed on his electric bike.<\/p>\n Randall Weck\u2019s license had been suspended as long as Taylor could remember. While she was growing up, her father was always borrowing someone\u2019s car or finding another way to get around. His new e-bike allowed him to get most places he needed.<\/p>\n On Mar. 19, 2023, Weck had been drinking before he rode home from his sister\u2019s house. He went over the handlebars in downtown Clearwater and fractured multiple ribs. Weck was taken to a hospital where he died more than a month later from complications related to his injuries.<\/p>\n So when Taylor\u2019s sister bought her nephews electric bikes and scooters for Christmas last year, she was beside herself.<\/p>\n \u201cI even told my mom: I was like, \u2018Oh Lord, I\u2019ll wait for the phone call from you to tell me that RJ got hit by a car,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Weeks later, her 14-year-old nephew was hit by a car on his e-scooter. He wasn\u2019t hurt, but the impact knocked him out of his shoes, Taylor said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m highly against e-bikes. I\u2019ve watched accidents happen where I drive past and somebody hits somebody on an e-bike,\u201d she said. \u201cI watch these kids go down the road, and it\u2019s just like you\u2019re just asking for your kid to die.\u201d<\/p>\n Pinellas County Commission chair Brian Scott remembers when the Pinellas Trail first opened 35 years ago. At the time, it stretched just six miles linking Largo to Seminole.<\/p>\n When Scott was first elected to the board in 2022, his inbox filledwith complaints about reckless e-bikers. At the time, he didn\u2019t think it was asbad as people were saying.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see somebody misbehaving here and there. There\u2019s idiots on every vehicle,\u201d he said. \u201cBut since that time, over the last three years, it\u2019s really, really, really escalated.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHardly a week goes by now where you\u2019re not hearing about a serious e-bike accident somewhere in Pinellas County,\u201d Scott added.<\/p>\n E-bike fatalities on the road far exceed those on shared paths in Tampa Bay \u2014 just seven of the 27 deaths reviewed by the Times did not involve a car. (Of those seven, alcohol and drugs were a factor in three deaths.) But public outcry is loudest when it comes to shared trails.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to scroll far down the Friends of the Pinellas Trail Facebook group page to read about close shaves between e-bikers and pedestrians. Scott has had his own share of near misses.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have a moment of fear, but you almost feel like you\u2019ve been violated a little bit,\u201d Scott said. \u201cYou\u2019re like, shit, this guy almost killed me, and then they\u2019re gone. And there\u2019s nothing you can do about it other than go on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott is considering traffic cameras, intersection redesigns near trails and steps taken by other local governments, like a Palm Beach town ordinance that banned children under 15<\/a> from riding e-bikes and outlawed their use on sidewalks<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenging thing on the (Pinellas) Trail is because it\u2019s not a road, you can\u2019t write a speeding ticket,\u201d Scott said. \u201cThere\u2019s 20 mph speed limit signs on the trail, but it\u2019s more like a suggestion.\u201d<\/p>\n Before passing any local rules, Scott and other community leaders are waiting to see whether an e-bike bill<\/a> filed this year makes it to Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 desk.<\/p>\n The measure would require e-bikers to give a verbal warning when passing a pedestrian, make modifying an e-bike illegal and bar children 15 or younger from riding one with a motor that is 750 watts or bigger \u2014 a law that already exists in most states.<\/p>\n The bill would also require state accidentreports to say whether a crash involved a motorized scooter, an e-bike or an electric motorcycle.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3e14552ab0be037b1f5afb1010222f2e.jpeg\"\/)
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