E-bikes are like cigarettes: they’re dangerous when used as intended. And like cigarettes, the consequences of using or misusing them can be significant: more than 500 e-bike deaths and thousands of injuries from 2017 through 2024, according to a recent report from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
While many of the victims are teens, adults are also being injured and killed. In Washington, D.C., a city official was killed Friday evening, Oct. 9, and a woman was injured, when their e-scooters collided, the Washington Post reported. Talib Shakir, 50, a former prison inmate, was the director of the Mayor’s Office of Returning Citizen Affairs. He worked with newly released inmates, helping them adjust to living on their own.
“Talib made the most of his second chance and dedicated himself to helping others do the same,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said.
Quibbles and clarifications
There are all kinds of ways to dice the scary findings, thanks to the many types of what are sometimes called “personal mobility products.” In its report, the CPSC wraps them up as “microbility products” and breaks them down into categories including e-scooters, self-balancing scooters (skateboards, in other words) and e-bikes.
Fatalities resulted from collisions, loss-of-control crashes and fires started by lithium-ion batteries.
The numbers aren’t precise, since data tends to trickle into the CPSC through hospitals, morgues and other sources, a process that can take months in some cases. This makes it a little hard to say that one two-wheeled wonder is more dangerous than the others.
The CPSC report breaks it down this way:
531 total fatalities
189 e-scooters
145 e-bikes
197 self-balancing scooters
The one thing most of the devices have in common is that they must not have a top speed that exceeds 28 miles per hour. If they top that, they’re motorcycles and require licensing — for both the device and the driver. Of course, nearly any speed is enough to cause a fatal brain or spinal injury, especially when no safety helmet is being used, which informal observation indicates is most of the time.
Power equals danger
Skeptics — and industry representatives — may say that people have been riding bikes and scooters for years, so what’s the problem?
Good question. The answer is that a recent study presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2026 National Conference & Exhibition Oct. 2-6 found that children and teens riding electric- or gas-powered bikes are at higher risk of injury or death than those relying on pedal power.
The authors analyzed incidents involving patients age 17 and younger, following a total 134,426 cases involving pedal-assist bicycles, 305 e-bikes, and 1,721 gas-powered cycle-related injuries over the 20-year span. Gas-powered bikes led to the most hospital admissions followed closely by e-bikes.
The highest percentage of trauma-related deaths were related to electric bicycles, according to the research. E-bikes also led to the second-highest trauma-related admission rate when comparing the three bicycle types.
Another study presented at the AAP conference found similar results — a higher likelihood of life-threatening injuries involving e-bikes and e-scooters.
The authors of that study also found that many riders – especially those riding e-scooters — were violating age or helmet laws.
“It is imperative that youth, parents, and the community at large realize that preventing these injuries will require safety strategies that account for the different risks associated with each type of device and the implications of their use in public amongst other riders, pedestrians, and motor vehicle drivers, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach,” said Bianca Edison, M.D., an attending physician at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and co-author of the report.
Government to the rescue
You would think that local governments would be alarmed by this sudden slaughter of children and adults, and you’d be right. Governments are rushing to address the problem, although as with smoking, it’s not easy to regulate personal behavior and results are quite mixed.
Some states, like New Jersey, simply impose age restrictions. New Jersey’s is 15, said to be the “toughest” in the country. Some localities are resorting to buybacks, more commonly used for gun control.
In California, two towns near San Diego have declared a state of emergency and in New York City, where 901 people were injured in e-bike accidents last year, a safety group is agitating for state legislation that would require license plates on bikes and scooters.
The plates would make it easier to enforce NYC’s 15 mile-per-hour speed limit, advocates say, since it’s now nearly impossible for police to chase down and prosecute marauding e-bikes when they have no visible identification.
New Yorkers have more experience with bikes in general and tend to be pretty outspoken in their views. After all, for decades, messengers and food delivery people on plain old pedal-driven bikes have annoyed, endangered and often mowed down pedestrians in their haste to serve up to-go pizza, Chinese take-out and other comestibles. The electrification of bikes and scooters has made matters worse.
A recent accident involving two food deliverers took the life of Luis Cruz, struck down by a fellow delivery rider as he crossed a street in Brooklyn. Cruz’ daughter, Michelle, was sympathetic, up to a point.
“I do feel for the immigrants because they have to work somehow … it would be best that they get license plates and have to follow the same regulations as cars,” she told The Guardian.
Any federal plans?
You might think that the Trump Administration, eager to rid the nation of the imagined scourge of immigrants, would seize on the e-bike issue and perhaps dispatch ICE to pursue and deport maddened e-bike riders.
But there’s no sign of any concerted federal enforcement action. The CPSC, National Institutes of Health and others gather statistics and prepare studies but they don’t have any street-level enforcement powers.
The CPSC, for its part, concentrates on making the devices safer and routinely issues recalls to fix batteries and issues that create unsafe conditions. But it has no jurisdiction over how people actually ride the infernal creations.
Regulation or prohibition?
The electric menaces have their defenders, who note that teens — especially boys — feel an urgent need for self-expression, adventures and derring-do of various types. Speed — the measure of velocity, not amphetamines — is a common addiction and abstinence is difficult to achieve and maintain.
While street-level enforcement is difficult and public education is often of dubious value, there is always prohibition — making it illegal to sell a dangerous product. That requires legislation, regulations and other time-consuming remedies but the fear of legal retribution works in other ways as well: the fear of being sued can be a powerful deterrent.
Litigation can sometimes achieve what legislation doesn’t. And that could explain why Amazon is saying it will no longer allow the sale of superfast e-bikes and scooters through its website.
The announcement follows a consumer alert issued by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, calling for pedal bikes not to exceed 28 miles per hour and e-bikes not to exceed 20.
“Sometimes, what looks like an e-bike or is marketed as an e-bike is not a bike at all. We are seeing a surge of safety incidents on our sidewalks, parks, and streets. Bike riders and parents: If your or your teen's electric two-wheeled vehicle goes too fast, it might be a motorcycle or a moped — not an e-bike,” Bonta said.
“To ride a motorcycle or moped, you need to have the appropriate driver’s license and comply with rules of the road. With the popularity of e-bikes booming, I highly encourage manufacturers, retailers, and especially parents to review the consumer alert today and ensure they and their kids are complying with California law,” Bonta added.
Although rather gently worded, Bonta’s warning should strike fear into the hearts of many retailers, who could face damaging lawsuits from parents and victims of e-bike mishaps as well as more onerous class actions by the ever-vigilant plaintiff’s bar.
Some safety advocates say the real target should be the parents who let their teens ride off down the street without verifying that they know the dangers and have a suitably powered bike, not one that’s barely street-legal.
There have been several cases lately that seek to hold parents responsible for their children’s powered-bike accidents. In Orange County, California, Tommi Jo Mejer has been charged with felony involuntary manslaughter after an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran died of injuries inflicted when he was stricken by an illegal motorcycle driven by Mejer’s son.
Other criminal and civil cases are pending around the country and others are likely to be filed as prosecutors become more aware of the issue. Parents and retailers should take heed and beware!