Last week’s article dealt with the vastly increased injuries and fatalities associated with the proliferation of e-bikes. Information in this article is from a surgeon-authored piece by Dr. Romeo Ignacio Jr., a nationally recognized pediatric trauma surgeon who serves as the trauma medical director at Rady Children’s Health in San Diego, CA. He suggests some possible solutions to mitigate this growing problem.
According to Dr. Ignacio, legislative and regulatory frameworks have not kept pace with the rapid adoption of e-bike use among minors. Enforcement of age restrictions and speed limits is inconsistent, and high-powered devices remain accessible to children. Ignacio says effective prevention of pediatric e-bike trauma requires a multi-pronged approach that addresses the child rider, device, and environment.
Consistent helmet use remains the most important protective behavior. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommends a Department of Transportation-approved helmet for bicycle riders exceeding 20 mph; better still, for ALL riders.
Helmet legislation, school-based education, and both law and parental enforcement are essential to increasing compliance. Training programs that teach braking technique, hazard recognition, and safe riding behavior can help align children’s skills with the performance of the devices they operate.
While the CPSC recommends that children under 12 years should not operate motorized products that exceed speeds of 10 mph, you should know that NYS prohibits anyone under age 16 from operating any e-bike or e-scooter.
Device-focused strategies include selecting age-appropriate e-bikes with lower maximum speeds, lower motor wattage, restricting aftermarket modifications, and ensuring that lights, reflectors, batteries, and braking systems are properly maintained.
Parents must ensure their children can safely operate a pedal bicycle before advancing to a more powerful e-bike and understand the financial and liability risks if their child damages property or injures others.
A fragmented, state-by-state approach is generating confusion for consumers, retailers, and law enforcement. To solve this crisis, we need immediate and comprehensive federal regulation. Convening a national task force to standardize state laws would be another starting point to clarify the current regulatory patchwork.
Fully understanding the problem requires examining its root cause. House of Representatives bill HR 727, passed by Congress in 2002, defined “low-speed bicycles” as having fully operable pedals, an electric motor less than 750 watts (1 horsepower), and a maximum speed of 20 mph. The bill declared that e-bikes are not motor vehicles under federal transportation safety standards, placing them instead under the jurisdiction of the CPSC, effectively regulating them as consumer products such as tricycles, not motorized vehicles as mopeds are.
Congress never anticipated what would happen next. It did not define a “high-speed electric bicycle” or authorize throttle-powered Class 2 e-bikes or the 28-mph Class 3 models. States must create an effective system for enforcing safety requirements governing shared e-bike operations, and ensure operators and users comply with established rules.
The CPSC should end the deceptive sale of overpowered devices marketed online that exceed legal e-bike specifications. More broadly, Congress should redefine an e-bike as a motorized vehicle, move oversight to the Department of Transportation, and reduce motor power. What do you think?