Help Us Get Ahead of E-Bike Injuries
Kids are getting seriously hurt riding e-bikes across San Diego County.
At Rady Children’s Hospital alone, pediatric e-bike trauma cases climbed from just 3 in 2021 to 262 in 2025. Doctors are treating skull fractures, spinal injuries, and brain bleeds.
But there is another problem making this crisis harder to solve:
We currently wait more than a year to get the data that tells us where people are getting hurt, who is getting hurt, and what kinds of devices are involved.
By the time we recognize a dangerous pattern, more kids may already have been hurt.
We can change that.
On October 6, Supervisor Paloma Aguirre and I are asking the Board of Supervisors to create a Regional E-Bike Injury Early Warning System that brings together more timely information from hospitals, trauma centers, EMS providers, law enforcement, and other partners.
The idea is simple: see dangerous patterns sooner so we can respond sooner.
We have already seen what that can make possible.
When Marin County began tracking e-bike crashes more closely, officials discovered within the first month that the accident rate among 10- to 19-year-olds was nine times higher than among adults over 20. That finding helped prompt a public health advisory, a public injury dashboard, and additional local safety measures.
San Diego should have the same ability to understand what is happening here.
That is what led me to this proposal. I could see the problem in our communities and hear it from parents and doctors. But when I started asking basic questions: Where are injuries happening? Are they concentrated around particular schools? Which devices are involved? — we did not have a clear, current picture.
Better information can help officials decide where safety education, infrastructure changes, enforcement, or other prevention efforts may be most useful.
We shouldn’t have to wait for more kids to get hurt before we have the data we need to act effectively.
Better information will not prevent these injuries by itself. But it can help all of us make better decisions about what will. Our kids deserve a response built on facts — and the ability to act before the next tragedy, not after it.
Written by Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, District Three, Chair | September 28, 2026 | San Diego County Board of Supervisors
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