There’s an epidemic of reckless behavior. Between May 2023 and 2026, a Truveta study found that electric bike (e-bike) and electric scooter (e-scooter) injuries have increased by nearly 700 percent, and it’s clear to see why. Videos of teenagers and kids, often without helmets, jumping around in their seats and performing risky wheelies have exploded on social media. But as the number of e-bike injuries seems to climb higher every day, it’s time to discuss whether e-bikes should really be as widely available as they are.
E-bikes, first designed in the 1990s, have boomed in popularity since the start of the decade. They were sought after as an alternative to regular biking that made longer and hillier trips easier.
Electric bikes come in three classes: Class I, which can go up to 20 mph and does not contain a throttle; Class II, which can go up to 20 mph and does contain a throttle; Class III, which can go up to 28 mph, contains a throttle, and the driver must be at least 16 years old (all of which are at least five mph faster than a standard bicycle and still just as silent).
Despite such distinctions, there’s no real way to prevent children under 16 from riding Class III e-bikes unless they are already stopped by the police for other infractions, such as driving without a helmet. As long as a parent pays for and allows a child to ride such glorified motorcycles, there’s nothing a police officer can do but impound the vehicle and wait for a parent to come pick it up.
A Pine View senior, who has asked to remain anonymous, has a first hand account of these inefficiencies in regard to their little brother, a middle school student.
“[The cops] said ‘if we see you again on this bike, we’re giving you a ticket,'” the student said of their brother, who had to be driven home by the police after riding an e-bike lacking pedals — a crime in Florida.
Incidents like that of this student’s little brother’s show just how easy it is for unregulated e-bikes to make their ways into the hands of young students, and just how easy it is for police officers to ignore it.
To make matters worse, e-bike modifications, which change certain key elements of an electric bike’s design to make it more comfortable or bypass the set speed restrictions, have become increasingly common. Alarmingly, it’s relatively easy to find modding tutorials with a simple Google search. A report by the Daily Mail even found that Amazon allows sellers to list illegal kits that can create 40 mph e-bikes for around $500.
These machines, which don’t require any license to operate, have already begun to wreak havoc on people’s lives.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission found that US e-bike injuries have climbed to 59,200 in 2024, a 120 percent increase from 2022. Between 2017 and 2024, 301 deaths have been reported from e-bike related incidents. In Florida alone, the Broward Health Medical Center in Ft. Lauderdale reported three e-bike injuries in just a single hour on September 16.
So, why hasn’t there been any new legislation in place to prevent these injuries and deaths? The unfortunate answer is that there has been.
In early 2026, the Florida Senate introduced Senate Bill 382 and the Florida House of Representatives introduced the linked House Bill 243, which aimed to create a statewide log for e-bike crash data, to cap the speed limit of e-bikes on sidewalks to 10mph, and, most importantly, to force e-bike riders to yield for pedestrians.
Despite passing both the Florida Senate and House with zero ‘nays” and bipartisan support, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed the bill, citing government overreach and concerns for “enhanced surveillance” of citizens.
If parents continue to buy their children e-bikes with little to no oversight, injuries and deaths will continue to skyrocket. As a community so deeply hurt by vehicular tragedies, the students, parents, and faculty of Pine View must assume a responsibility to fight for increased legislation of e-bikes — whether it’s a license requirement or greater safety violation fines — for the safety of all Floridians on the road.