As more riders take to the streets on electric bicycles, emergency rooms are seeing the consequences. Medical professionals say riders — and in many cases, their parents — need to understand e-bike safety.
Industry analysis about 1.5 million e-bikes were sold nationwide in 2025, up from estimates around 500,000 in 2020.
Daniel Cheek, an emergency medicine doctor at Intermountain Health hospitals in Colorado, said he is seeing “a significant rise in e-bike injuries.”
“Particularly in the younger populations. Adolescents and teenagers are riding these more and more frequently. They’re a particular concerning group thatap on the rise of injuries,” Cheek told the Daily Camera while sitting in the emergency wing of Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette.
Across all ages, injuries involving e-bikes increased from 751 in 2017 to 23,493 in 2022, according to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, a database managed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
And one using the commission’s data found pediatric e-bike injuries increased from 2011 to 2020, while injuries from “traditional bicycles” declined.
“E-bike injuries in children more frequently required hospital admission or transfer compared to pedal bicycle injuries,” that study adds.
E-bikes fall into three categories based partly on speed. Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes have a motor that only provides assistance when traveling up to 20 mph, according to a state webpage. Class 1 e-bikes provide assistance only while pedaling, while Class 2 e-bikes can be powered by a throttle. Class 3 e-bikes only provide assistance up to 28 mph.
Under Colorado , no one under 16 may ride a Class 3 e-bike, except as a passenger, and riders under 18 must wear a helmet when using a Class 3 e-bike, according to a Colorado Legislative Council Staff document.
Other bikes, like electric motorcycles or dirt bikes, are considered motorized vehicles and can reach speeds of 50 mph or more.
“E-motos are a separate conversation,” Cheek said. “You actually need a motorcycle license to drive one, which is very appropriate and reasonable.”
Tips from ER professionals
Jennifer Kiley, manager of trauma services at UCHealth’s Longs Peak Hospital in Longmont, said she too has seen more injuries tied to e-bike crashes, and particularly involving young people, often “between ages 10 and 15.”
“I think the e-bikes themselves are a lot heavier, and the tires are wider,” Kiley said. “Because of that, they can be harder to manage, and it takes more time to slow down and stop. So you need to kind of be prepared and start slowing down sooner than probably most kids can identify.”
Parents should be aware that many e-bikes come with speed governors that can be easily adjusted, Kiley warned, which could allow an e-bike to go as fast as e-motos or dirt bikes.
“They actually recommend that parents check their kids’ bikes at least once a month to make sure they haven’t gone in and changed the settings,” she added.
E-bike riders should follow the rules of the road, sticking to bike lanes when possible. Bikes should also be fitted with lights, according to both Kiley and Cheek. And of course, there’s the importance of riders wearing helmets.
Cheek said while broken arm bones and neck injuries are common, head injuries are usually the most serious e-bike injuries.
Adults may not be under a statewide helmet requirement with their e-bike, but Cheek said riders should still consider helmets with advanced protection systems such as Multi-directional Impact Protection System, a technology designed to reduce rotational forces on the brain during angled impacts.
E-bikes can be a “great tool to get to and from school or meet up with friends,” Cheek said.
“But itap important to recognize that these can be dangerous. You have to follow the rules of the road. … If you’re hit by a car and you’re on a bike — whether itap an e-bike or a traditional bike — a helmet will help, but you’re still at high risk for a serious, life-threatening injury,” he added.
Online resources on e-bike safety are available, including through the Colorado Department of Transportation and local organizations such as PeopleForBikes, which has promoted the website eBikeSmart.org.
A crash that changed a life
In 2018, Erie resident Becky Chance’s son, Aidan Chance, was hit by a vehicle while riding his non-electric gravel bike into a parking lot.
Aidan Chance, then 15, suffered a brain injury despite wearing a helmet. He was released from the hospital the same day, but the crash marked the beginning of a long recovery.
“He had debilitating headaches,” his mom said. “He couldn’t stand up and balance with his eyes closed. He went through his entire sophomore year auditory, because he couldn’t really concentrate on anything visually.”
For months, he experienced double vision. He underwent vestibular therapy — focused on balance recovery — and also went through occupational and physical therapy, while his mom worked remotely from hospitals to support his recovery.
By the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many of Aidan Chance’s physical symptoms had improved, but it was around that time when he began experiencing depression and post-traumatic stress, requiring additional therapy.
“By the time it was all said and done, I was just over $100,000 out of pocket over three years,” Becky Chance said.
Their story, fortunately, has a happy ending.
Aidan Chance graduated from high school in 2021 and now works as an EMT in Denver, despite doctors at one point warning his parents that his “active PTSD episodes” meant he might never be able to hold a job.
He said he doesn’t think of the crash often, and he recalls his most recent PTSD episode being years ago. But he still remembers everything about the day it happened, and the years-long recovery process that followed.
He mentioned his troubles with schoolwork, neck pain and “agonizing headaches,” a bout of depression, and years of different therapies.
“My accident forced me to look at the world in a different way,” he said.
‘Teach your kids how to be safe’
After the crash, Becky Chance said, seeing other kids riding bikes became a trigger for her.
“I had to go to therapy, because I was actually screaming at kids and telling them that they were going to die, and my husband was like, ‘You need to stop.’ Because I had lived it. Every minute of it. And what I was watching in these kids was a behavior that was going to end up being catastrophic to them,” she told the Camera.
“The car will always win,” she said in a March Facebook post, written after she heard about a crash that happened in Erie. while riding what police called an “electric motorized vehicle,” and was hospitalized with what a fundraising page for his family said was “severe brain trauma.”
About a week later, a child riding what the Police Department called an electric bike with another vehicle in Erie. “My son spent three years in rehab, and I spent six figures for his care. If you have that kind of time and money, by all means don’t talk to your kids about bike safety. But if you don’t, talk to them and then talk to them again and again until they listen,” her Facebook post continues.Eight years after his crash, Aidan Chance said he understands why teens may not always heed warnings.
“I very much understand that I was 15 when I got hit, and if someone had told me to be careful on a bike, I would’ve been like, ‘What are you talking about?’” he said.
“I was fortunate enough that my mom would, day after day, hound me about wearing a helmet. That was just on a regular bike, where both me on my bike and the car that hit me, we were both going slow. I was going maybe 10 miles per hour. And I think the driver of the car was going about 10 miles per hour as well,” he added.
“My message is more for the parents. Teach your kids how to be safe. Over and over again. Try to get it into their heads. Eventually, if you say it enough, it will take root. And you can minimize the chance of a bad accident happening.”
