USA Today: parents of 13-year old who died after crashing his e-bike face possible jail time for child endangerment
Unsurprising, not long after I come to my own conclusion that e-bikes are potentially problematic, especially when combined with the severe seeming lack of understanding of rules and law, does this story come to light, of a kid who apparently not only had an e-bike, but an e-bike on steroids, where everyone’s calling it an e-motorcycle, capable of going in excess of 50 mph.
Now there’s never any joy or enjoyment when it comes to the loss of life, but there is an air of I told y’all so about the dangers of e-bikes, and a diminished sympathy when the context emerges that the parents willingly bought their son a super-version of an e-motorcycle that could go so fast, and not learning their lessons from the reported incident just months earlier that resulted in a broken leg for their son.
The fact that the kid’s only form of PPE was a standard bicycle helmet, was pretty unfathomable for a piece of equipment that could basically go faster than most Kia Rios or Nissan Leafs.
And whether it’s sheer negligence or ignorance that bicycles, regardless of if they’re electronic or not, need to be treated and riders adhering to the same laws as someone in a Ford F-250 or a Bugatti Veyron, the deceased kid had reportedly a history of driving his bike like an idiot, running red lights, popping wheelies and just general unsafe operation.
Unfortunately everything is for naught at this point, because the kid hit a median, flew off his e-bike and slammed into a light pole, which supposedly is what killed him, and there’s very little loss of life that isn’t sad and unfortunate, this being no exception.
I have some scooters in the garage for my kids to play on, but they’re the old school Razors, and most certainly don’t have any motors in them. They have yet to fully learn regular bicycles, and I certainly wouldn’t consider e-versions of anything, until they’ve mastered the basics, and even then, I think it’s safe to assume that I’d be much more overseeing of their safety and conduct than these shitty parents were with their kid.
It’s unfortunate that it resulted in a death and there’s no lesson for them to take away from this, but my point remains, e-bikes, motorcycles and scooters are dangerous, dangerous modes of transportation and recreation, and people and parents really need to be better educated of them, and the laws around local transportation, before any more people get hurt or killed.
As much as I like the feeling of being right about things, I certainly don’t take any enjoyment about reading about deaths or people getting seriously hurt on account of e-vehicles. Further advancement of legislation on these things is probably pending some shithead in Washington needing to have an incident of a family member getting affected by e-vehicles, before anything more is going to happen, unfortunately.
