TAMPA, Fla. — E-bike crashes in Tampa Bay are rising sharply and causing injuries similar to those seen in serious motorcycle or car accidents.
Local orthopedic trauma surgeon Dr. Hassan Mir (Florida Orthopaedic Institute) says many children involved in e-bike accidents suffer broken arms, legs, pelvises, and traumatic brain injuries, often due to not wearing helmets. Severe foot and ankle trauma, including partial amputations, is also happening when riders wear unprotected footwear like flip-flops.
Dr. Hassan Mir says, "I think its just important to understand that these are not just regular bikes – they are a lot heavier, a lot faster and you need to treat them with a little more respect and caution. It's really disheartening. I’ll spend a day operating on kids injured from e-bikes, and then on my way home from work, I'll be driving home and see multiple more kids on the way home on the streets on e-bikes, and be afraid, thinking, 'Hey, I wonder if that kid is going to be my next patient.'"
"The injuries are just getting worse and worse, whether that’s kids just wrecking the bike itself or several of them who are the worst injured are hit by cars. It just leads to really severe injuries, and some of them are not survivable."
Dr. Mir notes that e-bike crashes now greatly outnumber e-scooter accidents, with incidents increasing exponentially each year.
RELATED: Gov. DeSantis vetoes Florida e-bike safety bill
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