\n Give $10<\/a><\/p>\n
A few years ago, people walking into Sharp Coronado Hospital\u2019s emergency room with e-bike injuries was a rare, maybe occasional, occurrence.<\/p>\n
Now, Dr. William Bianchi said, it happens weekly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese things are basically like small motorcycles in my mind,\u201d said Bianchi, the hospital\u2019s medical director of emergency medicine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Concussions, bone fractures, sprained ankles \u2014 those are common, he said. But he worries about more severe injuries: a collapsed lung that requires a chest tube, or worse, a cerebral hemorrhage that causes irreversible brain damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
E-bikes have soared in popularity in the past few years. Injuries have skyrocketed, too. Lawmakers at the city and state level have responded with legislation, including a pilot program in San Diego County that sets an age limit for riders. But they\u2019re relying on public safety data that is far from comprehensive.<\/p>\n
Doctors who are treating e-bike injuries say something needs to be done.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bianchi said e-bike injuries could quickly overwhelm the small Coronado hospital and its 15-bed ER.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can take care of a trauma patient, but there\u2019s no saying how sick you are, and there\u2019s no saying how long it\u2019s gonna take for me to get you from Coronado to the specialized trauma center if that\u2019s what you need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018The numbers keep on increasing\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Local data shows e-bike injuries at trauma centers<\/a>, better equipped for treating the most severe injuries, are on the rise.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2024, the county\u2019s system of trauma centers reported 294 e-bike injuries \u2014 a 54% jump from the 191 reported the year prior. There is no comprehensive data beyond those two years, as the county grouped the injuries with motorcycles until 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you were to ask anybody who deals with trauma patients, the first thing that will come up is the increase in these e-bike crashes,\u201d said Zachary Heinemann, trauma program manager at Palomar Medical Center.<\/p>\n There\u2019s been a massive rise in e-bike injuries among local children, especially.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rady Children\u2019s Hospital reported three e-bike injuries in 2021. Last year, that number had skyrocketed to more than 250.<\/p>\n \u201cThe numbers keep on increasing, and it seems like every two years it\u2019s doubling,\u201d said Dr. Romeo Ignacio Jr., a pediatric surgeon at the hospital.<\/p>\n He said the typical age range he sees is 12 to 16. He\u2019s treated patients as young as 4 years old.<\/p>\n Doctors at both trauma centers say they see a range of incidents, from reckless riding to drivers\u2019 poor reactionary time.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMost injuries we encounter are not accidental. Somebody has made a choice,\u201d said Dr. John Steele at Palomar. \u201cIt\u2019s the choice to ride it in an unsafe manner.\u201d<\/p>\n San Diego researchers this month shared preliminary findings at an annual conference in New Orleans showing what doctors say they already know: Due to greater velocities, e-bike riders were nearly 2.5 times more likely to sustain an extremity injury than pedal bicycle users, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tracking collisions<\/strong><\/p>\n Each of the county\u2019s 18 cities regulates e-bikes differently, whether that\u2019s banning them from sidewalks, putting an age limit on ridership or confiscating bikes from those riding recklessly.<\/p>\n So far, six \u2014 Carlsbad<\/a>, Poway, San Marcos, Chula Vista<\/a>, Coronado and Santee \u2014 have used a state law specific to the county that allows them to prohibit people under 12 from riding e-bikes.<\/p>\n Leaders who adopted the law said that it was a good step, but several legislators and community members also said that it would not solve the main problem: teenagers riding recklessly. In Carlsbad, for example, roughly over half of the injuries from 2019-25 were among kids between 12 and 17.<\/p>\n But even as local elected officials increasingly consider more e-bike regulations, some police departments lack a special classification for e-bikes, or don\u2019t have a system in place that allows them to easily sort the numbers.<\/p>\n The county Sheriff\u2019s Office, which serves as the main law enforcement for most North County cities, said it does not track independent statistics specific to e-bikes. The department said it could only provide inewsource with general collision statistics.<\/p>\n In Chula Vista, records obtained by inewsource show that the city\u2019s Fire Department responded to 16 collisions involving e-bikes during the 2025 fiscal year. A motor vehicle is involved in nine of them, though the data doesn\u2019t provide more details and the department says the information is largely collected from narrative accounts.<\/p>\n In the records, the fire department noted that the e-bike data is \u201cnot purposely collected,\u201d nor does it plan to collect in the future. Chula Vista passed its e-bike regulations in August.<\/p>\n San Marcos reported 80 e-bike collisions between January 2023 and August 2025, according to records that inewsource obtained.\u00a0<\/p>\n Oceanside\u2019s data showed a dramatic increase: some 800 e-bike-related calls for service in 2025, compared to just 69 four years ago. But the city also lacks a way of singling out e-bike specific incidents: Its system does not make a distinction between e-bikes and pedal bicycles, Oceanside Police Capt. Scott Garrett said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully, when we get a new records management system, it will track the distinction,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Carlsbad reported nearly 220 crashes between 2022 and 2025, 63% of which it found were the fault of the e-bike rider. Of those 136 \u201cat-fault e-bike collisions,\u201d the largest group was riders between 12 and 17 years old. There were nine crashes for riders under 12, three of which involved a transport to the hospital.<\/p>\n But a ban may not be the answer, some say.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cE-bikes are new, they are here to stay and putting a strict ban on them is a way to limit the amount of usage, but at the same time, people aren\u2019t going to follow the rules,\u201d said Heinemann, Palomar\u2019s trauma program manager.<\/p>\n And some advocates say e-bike users are being unfairly generalized. They favor an education-first approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ian Hembree, the advocacy and community manager at the San Diego Bicycle Coalition, questioned whether there\u2019s sufficient data to support a ban on riders under 12.<\/p>\n He said many of the behaviors people complain about are already against the law and that when cities enact a ban, they\u2019re just \u201clumping in the unlawful riders that you want to regulate with the lawful riders and kids that just want to ride their e-bike to school like a half-mile away.\u201d<\/p>\n Hembree also said that a key problem is that there are many e-bikes on the market that are faster and more powerful than the state allows. California Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, introduced a bill that would prohibit manufacturers and sellers from labeling an electric vehicle as an e-bike if it doesn\u2019t meet the requirements.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a perfect world, we would have education for all the kids and meaningful distinctions in the goods we purchased so that consumers are protected from companies,\u201d Hembree said.\u00a0<\/p>\n More restrictions?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Carlsbad first voted in favor of e-bike regulations in December with wide support. Councilmembers want to explore even more restrictions, including possibly pushing for state legislation that would allow them to raise the age requirement to 16, like a pilot program that was launched in the Bay Area\u2019s Marin County.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the time, Carlsbad Senior Assistant Attorney Jennifer True said that a different state law was also commissioning a comprehensive study on e-bikes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUntil that statewide analysis is complete,\u201d she said in December, \u201ccities like Carlsbad must continue to rely on local data and real world experiences to help shape interim safety decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n That study came out at the end of 2025, and found that the number of crashes involving e-bikes grew to 961 in 2024, up from 1 in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n Oceanside took a markedly different approach, adopting new rules in January that allow police to temporarily confiscate e-bikes for what officials described as safety reasons, including for people with two or more bike-related criminal violations within a year. The bikes would be held as evidence until the case is closed, and the owner can get it back afterwards without paying any fees.\u00a0<\/p>\n Encinitas is entertaining similar rules, though the city pushed discussion to a future City Council meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Imperial Beach City Council directed staff in January to begin drafting regulations, starting with banning Class 3 e-bikes from all sidewalks and areas where speed limits are around 40 mph. Councilmembers opposed adopting a ban on riders under 12 years old, with at least one official raising concerns about reporting data<\/a> to the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bill requires the cities to report the data so that the state can use it to guide policy going forward.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Chula Vista Councilmember Michael Inzunza, who led the city\u2019s latest ordinance changes on the e-bikes, wants to take rules even further for Class 3 e-bikes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf it was up to me, it would be 16 years old and a driver\u2019s license,\u201d Inzunza said.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said he wants state legislators to draft a law that would require a driver\u2019s license to ride a Class 3 e-bike. Those bikes have the highest speeds and already require riders to be at least 16 years old.<\/p>\n Ignacio, the Rady Children\u2019s doctor, said he has helped lead workshops in Chula Vista about e-bike safety. He has also contributed to research on injury rates<\/a>, and is working with state senators on more e-bike laws that would apply across California.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CV_ebike-_001.jpg\")
A man rides an e-bike along Third Avenue in Chula Vista on Aug. 5, 2025. (Sandy Huffaker for inewsource)<\/p>\n