Garden Grove city officials are eying Huntington Beach’s response to unsafe e-bike riders, which includes community education and diversion programs.
That type of approach – coupled with fines, impoundment and potentially charging parents with child endangerment under state law – could become a model.
The Huntington Beach Police Department also hosts e-bike safety courses for students, which are required before kids can ride their e-bikes to school.
At last week’s Garden Grove City Council meeting, police officer Jesus Gomez said the Rady Children’s Hospital of Orange County has seen an explosion in trauma cases from e-bike crashes over the past four years.
During a presentation on Garden Grove’s growing unsafe e-bike riding issue, Gomez told council members that CHOC saw one e-bike trauma case in 2021, increasing to 201 trauma cases last year.
“It cost $20,000 just to be transported to CHOC trauma center,” Gomez said, adding that doesn’t include any medical treatment.
Gomez, who works in the police department’s traffic division, said the city has been speaking with officials in Huntington Beach.
“Currently we’re watching and working with the City of Huntington Beach, they have led every city in the state with e-bike crashes and injuries. We’ve seen that they are starting a diversion program,” he said. “If students want to take an e-bike to school, they have to take an e-bike safety course.”
Garden Grove City Councilman Joe DoVinh said the city should mirror what Huntington Beach is doing.
“I like that very much,” DoVinh said. “If they’re doing something that is working, I like that alot.”
“You don’t want to spend $20,000 upwards if you have to send your kid to the hospital,” he said. “Let’s look into that and see if we can adopt some of our neighboring city’s practices.”
Gomez said many of the e-bike injuries in Garden Grove happen when the person rides on the wrong side of the road and collides with a car.
Data provided by officials from Rady Children’s Hospital of Orange County show a surge in e-bike injuries at the trauma center, with head, neck and face injuries at a higher proportion than regular bicycle cases.
The data also show e-bike trauma cases also had a higher proportion of concussions and internal injuries compared to regular bicycle injuries.
Last year, e-bikes were the leading cause of trauma cases at the children’s hospital, according to a children’s hospital study.
Parents Held Liable
A new state law that took effect this year means parents could be held liable if their children violate e-bike laws – including fines and impoundment.
In certain cases, parents can also be hit with criminal charges.
“Now parents can be charged with child endangerment and contributing to minor delinquency if we prove that their parent knew that their child was riding an illegal motorcycle,” Gomez said, who earlier explained that any e-bike that goes faster than 28-miles-per-hour is basically an e-motorcycle that requires a license and features like turn signals and mirrors.
Earlier this month, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer charged a Yorba Linda father with felony child endangerment and abuse, along with misdemeanor charges of contributing to child delinquency after his 12-year-old son suffered a fractured skull while riding an illegal e-motorcycle.
“The boy was given the E-motorcycle as a Christmas present and had already had his e-Motorcycle impounded once before the July 2025 collision that left him with a fractured skull, an intracranial bleed and several other broken bones,” reads a March 3 news release.
According to county prosecutors, the father allegedly helped the child modify the bike.
“There is absolutely no reason that an unlicensed, untrained child with no concept of the rules of the road should be riding a motorcycle that can go up to 60 miles per hour next to cars on a public street and think that by some miracle they are going to be safe,” Spitzer said in the news release
The Huntington Beach Police Department announced a Surf City father is now facing a child endangerment charge after his kids’ e-motorcycle was impounded three times.
“After discussions with the father, who indicated the behavior would stop and that he intended to sell the vehicle,” reads a Facebook post from the police department, that noted “despite those enforcement actions and repeated education regarding California law and the serious risks involved, the behavior continued.”
“This is the first case of its kind filed by the DA’s Office for the City of Huntington Beach.”
Spencer Custodio is the civic editor. You can reach him at scustodio@voiceofoc.org. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerCustodio.
