Another e-bike rider died over the weekend in Huntington Beach, marking the second fatal incident involving an e-bike in the coastal city in months. On Saturday around 4:30 p.m., the Huntington Beach Police Department responded to a report of an e-bike traffic crash at the intersection of Warner Avenue and Brightwater Drive, according to a police department news release. Officers found the rider of the e-bike, a 62-year-old woman from Westminster, unconscious in the road, according to the release.
Paramedics took the woman to a hospital but she died from her injuries. Investigators found that the woman was riding east in the bicycle lane on Warner Avenue east of Brightwater Drive when she hit the raised concrete curb and fell, according to the release. The death marks the second time in months an e-bike rider was killed in Huntington Beach. On July 21, a man on an e-bike collidedwith a vehicle at the intersection of Warner Avenue and Plaza Lane.
Paramedics found the man unconscious on the sidewalk and took him to a hospital, where he died from his injuries five days later. E-bike crashes have been on the rise in recent years. The Times reported that e-bike riders were involved in at least 4,035 collisions in California from 2018 to 2024, according to a study by researchers at UC San Diego. Data were analyzed from the California Highway Patrol’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System.
The data include traffic incidents and reports submitted by law enforcement agencies across the state. The study also found that people involved in e-bike collisions suffer more injuries than those in collisions involving traditional bicycles. In a majority of those crashes, the e-bike rider was at fault. A Los Angeles City Council panel in April proposed banning e-bikes from local trails.
The Arts, Parks, Libraries, and Community Enrichment Committee voted 3-0 in favor of the measure, but the proposal still has to clear a full City Council vote in order to become law.
