Huntington Beach: Youth E-Bike Crashes Soar, Kids Flooding Trauma Centers
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (June 25, 2025) — Huntington Beach officials are sounding the alarm as a record number of teens and children suffer traumatic injuries from e-bike crashes, many resembling the aftermath of car accidents.
In response to the growing crisis, the city has launched the nation’s first police-led safety course aimed at educating young riders and curbing reckless behavior on the roads: The HBPD Student E-Bike Safety Program
Speaking at today’s news conference Mayor Pat Burns addressed a crowd of reporters. There has been rapid rise in injuries and collisions in the city among children and teenagers due to reckless riding, ignoring traffic laws, and a lack of training.
“Huntington Beach has had the most crashes in the state with 147 last year, and we’ve already exceeded that, and we are not even in July,” Burns said, adding the city anticipates more than 160 injuries in e-bike crashes this year. Roughly 50 percent of these collisions involved riders under 18 years old.
City Enforcement Fails to Curb Crashes
Back in 2023, the city of Huntington Beach updated its municipal code to crack down on reckless e-bikers with criminal and civil fines up to $500, but more and more people purchase these bikes, and young riders push the limits of safety, he said.
“It surprises me we haven’t had any deaths I know of from e-bikes,” he added.
Huntington Beach Police Chief Eric Parra said “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our youth.”
However, the number of e-bike accidents have doubled over the past few years, he said.
The city confirms that in just three years, reported crashes in Huntington Beach have more than doubled from 72 in 2022 to 135 in 2023, and 147 in 2024. Current projections suggest 2025 will surpass 160, marking a 120% increase since 2022.
Despite the police department’s efforts by using traditional enforcement of traffic laws such as giving out warnings and tickets, providing bicycle educational courses, the numbers of collisions keep trending higher. That’s why the city has introduced the nation’s first police-led HBPD Student E-Bike Safety Program.
The free course includes real-world instruction in emergency braking, obstacle navigation, reaction-time awareness, and helmet use, the city said. Parents are required to attend alongside their children, creating a shared learning experience focused on safety both on the road and at home.
“We hope it’s wildly successful,” said Parra, explaining that they want young e-bike riders to be safer and obey traffic rules.
The course will be free and open to the public.
Alarming Number of Youth Trauma Patients at Hospital
Amy Frias of Children’s Hospital Orange County stated there has been a surge in trauma patients at CHOC since 2019. E-bike trauma cases are up 1,500 percent since then and Huntington Beach is the leading city of these types of admissions involving underage riders.
“We are at 79 trauma visits from e-bikes this year and it’s not even July,” she said. “Nearly half involve untrained, underage riders. more than half were not even wearing a helmet.”
Most involve riders between the age of 12 to 15 years old and pedestrians are also injured when they are hit by these riders.
“E-bike accidents are more like severe car crashes with head injuries, tops of knees shattered, fractures, and concussions,” she said. “These are not normal injuries for kids. They are severe and take a long time to heal. Very scary. We want to keep kids out of the hospital.”
Attorney James Johnson, founder of Johnson Attorneys Group, says the press conference didn’t expand on the fact that e-bikes are often at odds with motorists and the consequences of a collision with a car are far worse than a solo e-bike crash.
“This new program is fantastic and a great way to educate young people on the rules of the road and traffic safety,” he said. “Children and teenagers share the road with other motorists, and those collisions are not always survivable.”
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