{"id":311110,"date":"2026-07-31T21:06:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T21:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/311110\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T21:06:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T21:06:41","slug":"attorney-general-issues-consumer-alert-following-fatal-illegal-e-bike-crash-outside-city-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/311110\/","title":{"rendered":"Attorney general issues consumer alert following fatal illegal e-bike crash outside City Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York\u2019s attorney general on Friday asked New Yorkers to report businesses selling illegal e-bikes after a 17-year-old Brooklyn boy was killed riding one this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur laws set limits on e-bikes and e-scooters to help keep New Yorkers safe, and the riders and companies who ignore them are putting everyone on our streets in danger,\u201d Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. \u201cI urge businesses and consumers throughout our state to follow the law and keep unlicensed and unregistered motor vehicles off our streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one should have to fear for their lives when crossing the street, and I encourage New Yorkers to follow the law and report those selling illegal e-bikes and e-scooters to my office,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

High schooler Gabriel Nacato died Tuesday when he collided with a Chevy Tahoe<\/a> while riding his Deepower e-moto bike in Lower Manhattan, just steps from City Hall.<\/p>\n

According to police, his bicycle had a 960-watt motor and could travel up to 30 mph, making it illegal for street use as an e-bike in the five boroughs.<\/p>\n

\"Gabriel<\/p>\n

Courtesy of family<\/p>\n

Gabriel Nacato. (Courtesy of family)<\/p>\n

All e-bikes are subject to a 15 mph speed limit within New York City<\/a>. But whether or not a device is legally an e-bike in the first place depends on its top speed.<\/p>\n

According to the AG\u2019s office, electrically-assisted bicycles that can travel faster than 25 mph are not considered e-bikes under New York City law. They\u2019re mopeds or \u201ce-motos\u201d and are subject to DMV registration, officials said.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, all e-bikes sold in the state must have a motor capable of generating fewer than 750 watts and fit into one of three classes, none of which exceed 25 mph.<\/p>\n

All e-bikes are required to be labeled with their class and the wattage capabilities of their motors if they are to be legally sold in the Empire State.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increased use of electric vehicles that exceed the legal limits set for e-bikes and e-scooters has led to a surge in injuries and fatal accidents in New York,\u201d the AG\u2019s office said in a statement. \u201cThe risks of these vehicles is higher when retailers misleadingly sell them as e-bikes or e-scooters, instead of as e-motos, motorcycles or mopeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Streetsblog reported Friday<\/a> that Deepower, the company that makes the bike ridden by Nacato, changed its website in the wake of the crash, swapping the stats to make the high-wattage, 30mph bike look like a more mellow Class 2 machine.<\/p>\n

A user manual, reviewed by the Daily News and easily found on the Deepower website, lists the 75-pound bike as capable of 30 mph and shows owners how to disable a built-in speed limiter.<\/p>\n

\"NYPD<\/p>\n

Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Police investigate after 17-year old Gabriel Nacato died when he collided with a Chevy Tahoe while riding his Deepower e-moto bike on Centre St. near Chambers St. in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s tragic crash follows another set of deaths linked to too-fast two-wheelers.<\/p>\n

Francis Delvalle, 39, lost control of an illegal high-speed scooter<\/a> on the Queensborough Bridge in May, slamming into Dmytro Stechenko, 35, who was riding a traditional pedal bike.<\/p>\n

Medics rushed both men to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens, where they died.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s attorney general on Friday asked New Yorkers to report businesses selling illegal e-bikes after a 17-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,75,84,83,9,24,264,12,63,261,265,608],"class_list":["post-311110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}