California's Rising E-Bike Injuries: A Recent Study Reveals the Truth Behind the Numbers

Electric bicycles, commonly known as e-bikes, are everywhere in California today. With more people riding bikes, crashes and injuries have also increased, and by so much that it has prompted a study to find out why.

I remember attending Interbike in Las Vegas in 2017 when many of the first consumer e-bikes were being introduced in the United States. My initial reaction was, there's no way cyclists are going to buy these.

I was partially right. Traditional cyclists didn't drive the explosion in e-bike sales. Instead, parents embraced them as a practical way to give their children more independence. Today, it's common to see kids riding e-bikes to school, sports practice, and friends' houses without relying on busy parents for a ride.

As demand has grown, so has the variety of electric two-wheeled vehicles on the market. Manufacturers quickly discovered that power and speed sell, blurring the line between legal e-bikes and high-powered electric motorcycles marketed as "e-bikes."

At the same time, young riders are navigating traffic with little or no experience riding a bicycle or understanding the rules of the road. The result has been a sharp increase in serious crashes and injuries, with a growing number including children.

According to a new peer-reviewed study published in Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open, e-bike injuries recorded by California's crash-reporting system rose from just two cases in 2018 to more than 1,500 in 2024. As lawmakers consider new regulations, the study offers the strongest statewide evidence yet on how crashes involving electric bicycles are changing.

But one of the study's most important takeaways isn't what it proves. It's what it can't answer. Current crash data cannot reliably tell legal Class 1, 2, and 3 e-bikes apart from the growing number of high-powered electric motorcycles marketed to consumers as "e-bikes."  That distinction could fundamentally change how policymakers interpret the results and how California responds.

How the Study Was Conducted, and Why It Matters

Most of what's been known about e-bike injuries has come from single hospitals, short study windows, or anecdotal news reports. This is the first large statewide analysis, drawing on seven years of California Highway Patrol crash data. It arrives at a pivotal moment, as state lawmakers actively debate how to regulate e-bikes and crack down on misleadingly labeled high-power devices flooding the market.

Researchers at UC San Diego analyzed crash records from 2018 to 2024, identifying 62,367 cycling crashes in total: 58,332 involving traditional bicycles and 4,035 involving e-bikes.

Identifying which crashes actually involved e-bikes wasn't simple. California didn't add a dedicated "electric bicycle" code to its crash reports until 2021, and even then, only 521 of the 4,035 e-bike crashes were flagged with that code alone. The rest, more than 3,500 crashes, were identified because researchers combed officer reports for e-bike brand and model names, using a list they built through web searches and AI tools.

That method likely means the real number of e-bike crashes is higher than reported. If an officer didn't recognize or note a brand name, that crash could be entirely missing from the count.

To measure severity, researchers also compared rider age, fault, cited violations, and neighborhood income data against traditional bicycle crashes as a control group.

Key Findings at a Glance

• E-bike injuries jumped from 2 in 2018 to 1,566 in 2024, while bicycle crashes stayed flat.
• E-bike riders are younger (median age 33 vs. 36), and nearly 16% are 14 or younger.
• Injuries are more severe: almost 16% moderate-to-severe, vs. 12% for bicycles.
• Deaths are rising: e-bike riders died at a higher rate than bicyclists in 2024, and the trend is climbing.
• E-bike riders are more often at fault, with higher rates of unsafe speed and improper turning.g
• Crashes are more common in wealthier neighborhoods, not poorer ones

E-Bike Crashes Are Rising Much Faster Than Bicycle Crashes

Researchers identified 62,367 total cycling crashes in California from 2018 to 2024: 58,332 involving traditional bicycles and 4,035 involving e-bikes. While bicycle crashes held essentially flat, e-bike crashes climbed every single year, both in raw numbers and as a share of all cycling injuries.

Children Are Driving Much of the Increase

Riders 14 and younger made up nearly 16% of e-bike crash victims, compared with about 10% for bicycles, and that share has grown every year of the study. This raises specific concerns for parents and schools: many young riders are operating vehicles that go much faster than a traditional bike, often without the traffic experience or defensive skills to manage that added speed.

Orange County has already begun responding by pursuing criminal charges in cases where parents allegedly allowed minors to operate illegal high-powered e-motos on public roads.

Injuries Are More Severe, and Speed Is Part of Why

E-bikes typically weigh more and travel faster than traditional bicycles. In a crash, that combination means more kinetic energy is transferred on impact, which helps explain why moderate-to-severe injuries were more common among e-bike riders (15.8%) than bicyclists (11.9%). Higher speeds also increase the odds and severity of collisions with motor vehicles.

Researchers Identified Several Common Crash Factors

E-bike riders were found at fault more often than bicyclists (58% vs. 53%), and were more frequently cited for unsafe speed and improper turning.

It's worth noting what this does and doesn't mean: police-reported violations reflect what officers documented at the scene, not a full accounting of shared fault in every crash. Still, the pattern is consistent enough to suggest that speed-related riding behavior is a real factor in the severity gap between e-bikes and non-motorized bicycles.

The Question the Data Can't Answer

The study's most important limitation is one the authors readily acknowledge.

California law splits e-bikes into three classes. Class 1 and 2 top out at 20 mph. Class 3 can reach 28 mph and requires riders to be at least 16 years old. All three need pedaling assistance and are legal on most roads and bike paths.

But a different kind of vehicle has been showing up: high-powered "out-of-class" e-bikes and electric "dirt bikes," or e-motos. Some have motors over 750 watts, do not require pedaling, and can hit 40 mph or more. Many aren't legal for public roads. Yet they often look like bicycles and are marketed the same way.

This creates a real problem for crash reports. An officer at the scene often has no way to tell a legal, speed-capped e-bike apart from an unregistered, high-powered one, especially if both simply get labeled "e-bike."

The study's authors admit this directly: 

Anything bicycle-shaped and electric may be logged as an e-bike, whether or not it meets the legal definition.

That gap may explain some of the study's sharpest findings. Higher rates of unsafe speeds and improper turning among e-bike riders could reflect careless riding on standard e-bikes, or a smaller number of much faster, unregulated vehicles pulling up the average. The data can't say which.

That distinction is important for creating new policy. Treating all e-bikes as a single category risks restricting people who ride standard bikes, even though riskier behavior may be concentrated among a smaller group of high-powered vehicles sold under the same name.

Limitations Worth Knowing

A few caveats are worth keeping in mind. The study only includes crashes reported to police, so it likely misses many minor incidents, especially solo e-bike crashes that don't involve another vehicle. 

There's also no data on how many miles or trips riders actually took, so the study can't calculate a true injury rate, only raw counts. And because the data is observational, it can show patterns and correlations, but it can't prove that e-bikes themselves caused the increase in severe injuries.

What Comes Next

The study's authors, along with trauma surgeons, are already pushing for policy changes. Their recommendations include:

• Clear age minimums for riding different classes of e-bikes
• Standardized labeling so riders and parents know a bike's speed class and power before buying it
• Better crash reporting, including a way for officers to distinguish true e-bikes from e-motos and other high-powered look-alikes
• Helmet requirements enforced more consistently, especially for riders under 18
• Safer infrastructure, like protected bike lanes and lower speed limits near schools

These recommendations closely mirror those in our analysis of California's Landmark Electric Bicycle Safety Study, which examined the Mineta Transportation Institute's report, one of the most comprehensive electric bicycle safety studies ever conducted in the United States. Both studies call for better crash reporting, clearer vehicle classifications, improved rider education, and evidence-based policies to improve safety while supporting legal e-bike transportation.

Some of these ideas are already becoming law. The federal Safe RIDE Act incorporates several of the same recommendations. In California, lawmakers are even further along. SB 1167 would prohibit manufacturers and retailers from marketing or selling high-powered e-motos as "e-bikes" and instead regulate them as motor vehicles, subject to registration and licensing requirements.

Ultimately, both studies reach the same conclusion: better data has to come first. Until crash reports can reliably distinguish legal e-bikes from high-powered, unregulated vehicles, researchers and policymakers will continue making important safety decisions without knowing exactly which vehicles are driving the rise in serious injuries and deaths.

The Bottom Line

E-bike crashes in California are rising exponentially, and children are increasingly part of that trend. That much the data makes clear. What it can't make clear is how many of those crashes involve standard, speed-capped e-bikes versus high-powered, unregulated look-alikes sold under the same name.

Closing that gap may matter more than any single statistic in the report. Until crash data can tell the two apart, both effective safety policy and fair regulation will be aiming at the same blurry target.

The findings should not discourage people from choosing a legal electric bicycle for commuting or recreation. Legal e-bikes remain an important transportation option that can reduce traffic congestion, improve mobility, and encourage more people to ride safely.

The challenge is ensuring they are clearly distinguished from vehicles that exceed California's legal definition of an e-bike.

Bike Legal: Trusted Legal Help for All Cyclists

Bike Legal believes in cycling, in every form, whether it's a traditional bicycle or a legal, properly classified e-bike. Riding is one of the best ways to stay active and build stronger communities, and we want to see more people on two wheels, not fewer.

But that only works if people can get where they are going safely. When a bicycle or e-bike crash occurs because of someone else's negligence, Bike Legal helps injured cyclists pursue the compensation they deserve.

If you or someone you know has been hurt in a bicycle or e-bike crash, contact Bike Legal today 

📞 Call 877-BIKE-LEGAL (877-245-3534) for a free consultation. No obligation, no upfront costs.

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