By: Phineas Zhang
In late July, there were many e-bike accidents causing the deaths of many teenagers. These e-bike accidents are happening in busy roads in Irvine California because some teenagers are breaking the speed limit and are recklessly driving.
An e-bike is a bike with a motor, allowing you to reach much higher speed and use much less effort. The e-bikes that were being used are only supposed to reach a max of 12 mph, but from youtube videos teenagers learned that simply cutting off a wire and making the new max speed reach 70 mph, which is most likely causing all the accidents.
Some accidents are not the biker’s fault though. Brodee Champlain Kingman died in an e-bike accident, and witnesses reported that “He turned on the turn light as he was supposed to and did everything right.” But even though he did everything right, he still died in an accident. Three days after Brodee died, there was another e-bike accident. This time, it was the biker to blame. His name was Saul Cookson, 15 years old. He got hit by a car, and slid under a BMW, alive. He was hurt, but at least he survived. The police reported that he was seen recklessly driving and he was to blame. The speed limit for e-bikes is usually 20 mph, but most e-bikes can go faster than that. According to the text, “even when ridden at legal speeds, there are risks, especially for young, inexperienced riders merging into complex traffic with fast-moving cars and sometimes distracted drivers.” E-bikes are dangerous as long as you are young and inexperienced.
Because of these accidents, the government has decided to make some laws. First of all, spokeswoman Sheila Miller, says that you need to be above 16 to ride an e-bike of any kind.
Most of the accidents were of 15 year olds, so with this new law in play they wouldn’t have died. She also says, “Parents, please don’t buy these bikes for kids when they are not legally allowed to ride them, and if you own an e-bike, make sure that everyone who is using them knows the rules of the road.” This makes sure you know road rules if you ride an e-bike, and no one underage should own an e-bike. In the article, Matt Richtel even says that “Some states have begun to raise the training requirements for young drivers, including adding graduated license programs that require extended hours of supervised driving, limit night driving or restrict the number or age of passengers.” Now in those states, e-bikers will need a license to drive an e-bike.
Many people have died because of these e-bike accidents, and the government has been making laws to make sure that there will be less accidents from e-bikes. There should be more laws to prevent the e-bike accidents, like maybe have a license to drive an e-bike or make a school to teach people how to ride an e-bike, the road rules, and other things that would help prevent a crash.