{"id":294022,"date":"2026-06-03T04:34:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T04:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294022\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T04:34:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T04:34:19","slug":"aaa-tgh-launch-safety-campaign-after-tampa-doctors-report-surge-in-serious-e-bike-injuries-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294022\/","title":{"rendered":"AAA, TGH launch safety campaign after Tampa doctors report surge in serious e-bike injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brief<\/p>\n

Pasco County 9-year-old Dylan Shepherd suffered serious injuries, including rib fractures, bruised lungs and a torn spleen, after hitting debris and crashing his e-bike while riding at about 20 mph.<\/p>\n

Tampa doctors at Muma Children\u2019s Hospital at TGH say e-bike injuries among children are increasing, with the hospital now treating roughly one e-bike-related case per week.<\/p>\n

AAA and Muma Children\u2019s Hospital launched the “E-Ride Ready” safety campaign, urging riders to wear proper helmets, use protective gear and understand local e-bike laws to help prevent serious injuries.<\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. – A Pasco County<\/a> nine-year-old is sharing his crash story as AAA and Tampa’s <\/a>Muma Children\u2019s Hospital at TGH launch a safety campaign, hoping to prevent e-bike injuries this summer.<\/p>\n

Muma Children\u2019s Hospital at TGH e-bike safety campaign<\/p>\n

The backstory<\/p>\n

In April, Dylan Shepherd, 9, was riding his e-bike at about 20 mph with his father in their neighborhood when he hit debris and flipped over the handlebars.<\/p>\n

Dylan\u2019s father, Chris Shepherd, said his son was briefly knocked unconscious.<\/p>\n

“I mean, your heart sinks,” Chris Shepherd said, recalling the moment.<\/p>\n

\"<div>Courtesy:<\/p>\n

Courtesy: The Shepherd family<\/p>\n

Doctors at Muma Children\u2019s Hospital at TGH treated him for multiple rib fractures, bruised lungs, a torn spleen and road rash.<\/p>\n

Dylan Shepherd was wearing a helmet with full facial protection, which his family believes saved his life.<\/p>\n

“We can fix the rest of your body. I can’t fix your head,” Dylan\u2019s mom, Kaitlyn Shepherd, said, of what the doctors told her. “If there’s anything that we can take away from this is to please protect your children. Please make sure they’re wearing a helmet and all of the protective gear that they need so that they can come home, and they can still live their lives and have fun and do everything that children should be doing.”<\/p>\n

Rising number of serious e-bike injuries<\/p>\n

By the numbers<\/p>\n

Pediatric surgeons at Muma Children\u2019s Hospital at TGH are concerned by the severity of injuries caused by e-bikes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Compared to traditional bicycles, children riding e-bikes experience twice the rate of traumatic brain injuries, nearly five times the rate of bleeding around the brain, and three times the rate of facial fractures,” Dr. Jade Kumar, a pediatric surgeon at Muma Children\u2019s Hospital at TGH and John\u2019s Hopkins All Children\u2019s Hospital, said. “These are not scraped knees and bruises. These are injuries that require hospitalization, intensive care, emergency surgery, months of recovery and even death.”<\/p>\n

Doctors say they\u2019re seeing more and more cases.<\/p>\n

“I mean, we’ve definitely grown our volume. I think we’ve almost doubled our volume from last year to this year,” Kumar said of overall e-bike cases. “It’s very common \u2014 once a week, we have an e-bike.”<\/p>\n

‘E-Ride Ready’ safety initiative<\/p>\n

Dig deeper<\/p>\n

While Florida <\/a>law mandates that riders under 16 years old must wear a helmet, the rules regarding where children can legally ride can vary, which can lead to confusion.<\/p>\n

AAA, in partnership with Muma Children\u2019s Hospital at TGH, announced its “E-Ride Ready” campaign Tuesday in an effort to spread awareness and prevent e-bike injuries this summer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

AAA officials recommend purchasing a helmet equipped to handle the specific speed of the rider\u2019s particular e-bike or scooter. They said it\u2019s also important to know the rules of the road.<\/p>\n

“E-bikes can also ride where bicycles are allowed, and sidewalk riding is generally permitted. But again, that can vary from one city to another. So that’s where it can be very confusing,” AAA spokesperson Mark Jenkins said. “Local cities pass their own ordinances, and that can be different from the state law. So, it’s very important before you ride to know the laws as it applies to where you’re riding, not just where you purchased that device.”<\/p>\n

Pasco County allows e-bikes on streets, sidewalks<\/p>\n

Local perspective<\/p>\n

In Pasco County, electric bicycles are permitted on both streets and sidewalks, according to a March safety reminder posted on Facebook<\/a> by the sheriff’s office.<\/p>\n

Supervised riding environments<\/p>\n

What’s next<\/p>\n

Moving forward, the Shepherd family says they\u2019ll be more particular about where they\u2019ll choose to ride. <\/p>\n

“There\u2019ll be a lot more supervision in where we ride. Like I said, we were riding in the neighborhood. And that’s an uncontrolled environment,” Chris Shepherd said. “When you’re at the track, when you go to these tracks, you don’t have to watch out for cars and stuff lying in the road that we struck. So yeah, we’ll continue to ride, absolutely.”<\/p>\n

The Source<\/p>\n

The information in this story was gathered from a press conference with the Shepherd family, Muma Children\u2019s Hospital at TGH, and AAA. Online information from the Pasco Sheriff\u2019s Office Facebook page was also used.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Pasco County 9-year-old Dylan Shepherd suffered serious injuries, including rib fractures, bruised lungs and a torn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[11246,22718,124010,124012,124014,124011,1338,98707,124015,135,137,136,124013],"class_list":["post-294022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-aaa","tag-childrens-hospital","tag-chris-shepherd","tag-dylan-shepherd","tag-kaitlyn-shepherd","tag-muma-childrens-hospital","tag-pasco-county","tag-safety-campaign","tag-shepherd-family","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-traumatic-brain-injuries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}