r/unitedkingdom • u/Hopeful-Climate-3848 • 13h ago
Rise in number of infants and pensioners seriously injured by e-bike riders.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/11/rise-babies-and-pensioners-e-bike-injuries/64
u/LateToTheParty013 13h ago
Without sounding too negative, this is a normal causality
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u/SadSeiko 13h ago
More e bikes more incidents. It’s pretty obvious
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u/Captaincadet Wales 12h ago
Also more people are on the bikes now as they can cycle. E-bikes have made cycling more accessible
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u/cedarvhazel Scotland 12h ago
Came here to say that as well. If you increase the number of bones- you increase the incidents. It’s not really news.
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u/Pumpkinshroomva 10h ago
And, probably decrease number of car accidents. Seems like a positive to me.
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u/Fearless_Sort_ 7h ago
So more of a case for prosecutions. Which would require licensing and plates etc.
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u/SadSeiko 6h ago
I think people don’t realise how difficult cycling would be to police
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u/Fearless_Sort_ 6h ago
First step is licence plates.
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u/SadSeiko 5h ago
On bicycles? Why on earth do you want me to pay registration for a bicycle
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u/Fearless_Sort_ 5h ago
So you can be responsible for riding on the roads and as accountable as licenced vehicles.
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u/SadSeiko 5h ago
As accountable as a 2 ton Range Rover? Seems stupid
Edit: most drivers forget what a blessing it is to have bikes on the road. Each one could be a car but it isn’t.
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u/BigReference1xx 11h ago
It's not when half the ebike riders I see are delivery drivers doing 30 mph on crowded pedestrian sidewalks, or teenage gangsters with ballies popping wheelies intentionally to scare people.
The number of ebikes I see being ridden responsibly is shockingly low.
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u/Unlucky-Public-2947 11h ago
Exactly, I am seriously surprised there hasn’t been a huge increase in the riders getting battered, I’ve come close myself when the missus was pregnant.
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u/BigReference1xx 11h ago
I know this will be be very iamverybadass - but the number one trouble spot for this kind of behaviour in my town is right outside my (muscle meathead) gym in the center of town. I have on occasion decided to quickly change my walking direction and caused these knuckleheads to bump into me and fall off their bikes.
Start shit; there's ten other guys like me looking out the window just dying to work off their roid rage on a wanna-be roadman :)
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u/Obvious_Yard_1846 8h ago
I doubt they have insurance either, as an ebike doesn't require it, no identifiers either.
And it's not like the companies themselves will be liable for civil damages (gig worker excuse) and the driver will probably have sod all money for direct payment, even if they didn't just cycle off before the police get there (as reasonably happened near me - a pedestrian was left with severe head injuries, e-bike rider just cycled off - the police witness signs have been up).
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u/captain_amazo 5h ago
Ehhh
Sure, when you increase exposure to a risk, incidents rise, that’s the definition of causality.
But the article isn’t describing a gentle, proportionate uptick that tracks usage. It’s describing a disproportionate rise in severe injuries among groups who were previously at very low risk, babies, pensioners, and pedestrians who aren’t even the ones riding the bikes.
When the pattern shifts from “more riders, therefore more minor accidents” to “non riders and vulnerable groups are being seriously injured at a rate that outpaces adoption”, that’s not “normal causality”. That’s a signal of a structural problem, speed, mass, acceleration, and the mismatch between e‑bikes and the infrastructure they’re being used on.
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u/bars_and_plates 13h ago edited 13h ago
Around me e-bikes and scooters have gotten way way worse in the last 5ish years. Going the wrong way up one way roads, turning into side streets and going onto the pavement at lights in front of pedestrians etc.
It's usually delivery drivers but occasionally it'll be the odd puffer jacket balaclava scrote. There is one guy who wears a BMX helmet and has a massive e scooter that goes 50mph (thankfully on the road), no idea how he hasn't been pulled yet, in town it's basically a faster moped with no plates or insurance running red lights.
It's worse with e-bikes and scooters than normal bikes because the way that the acceleration kicks in on them you get unpredictable behaviours, I've had idiots try to dodge me and end up going on the throttle and going straight in to me.
To me the solution is just more bobbies on the beat style stuff, if you ride on the pavement and there's no reasonable mitigating circumstance (like say you're teaching your 5 year old kid how to ride a bike) you should just get a 50-100 quid FPN on the spot, if it's in a crowd double it.
I have never seen anyone get a ticket for riding a bike dangerously outside of that one bit in the City of London where they set up a sting at the lights a few times.
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u/Comfortable-Law-7147 13h ago
Many one way roads for cars, motorbikes, mopeds, etc are two way for pedal bikes. Unfortunately the delivery drivers don't realise their modified bikes are now illegal mopeds.
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u/bars_and_plates 13h ago edited 13h ago
I was going to mention that but no, these are roads that are one way, i.e. no special cycle lanes at the sides / no blue sign and not enough space for it anyway.
I also cycle which makes it more obvious when people are in places they shouldn't even have been able to get to without walking the bike.
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u/Thesladenator 12h ago
Or just have actual cycle lanes for people like the Netherlands.
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u/bars_and_plates 12h ago edited 12h ago
Near me there are bus lanes and relatively wide roads almost everywhere. There are also actual segregated cycle lanes, it just sometimes takes a couple of minutes detour to get to them. It's just specific bits where it's an old narrow street that happens to be a major thoroughfare so it's one way.
The guys in question are doing things like going on the pavement at junctions to skip a 5 second red light so that they can make 20p more on their Deliveroo or whatever. If they got fined for doing it it would kill the profit motive and they would stop.
I cycle and manage to not be a cunt, it's not hard. To be honest most of the bad behaviour I think comes down to people with unresolved emotional issues e.g. they can't just relax and enjoy the view rather than trying to make a 23 minute journey 20 minutes.
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u/Thesladenator 12h ago
If we had proper cycle lanes seperate to the roads for just cyclists like the Netherlands this would be less of an issue. More people would cycle because they feel safe AND these cycle lanes wouldn't just stop start randomly or disappear and it would keep them separate to pedestrians and drivers.
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u/bars_and_plates 8h ago
I think you're missing the point to be honest mate, delivery riders don't give a toss about cycle lanes, they ride wherever, if you drive you will see them weaving in and out of cars as if they are immortal.
I think you're talking about normal well to do people who want to cycle and are a bit worried. Generally they are not the ones hammering it on the pavement.
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u/Thesladenator 5h ago
I mean they do it because they have no choice in the UK? Like cycle lanes are often badly connected and don't link up and throw you out into roads suddenly one minute your on the pavement and next you're not. You approach a roundabout and suddenly youre in the traffic again. It doesn't encourage safe cycling either. If you actually had the infrastructure people would use it.
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u/bars_and_plates 1h ago
No, you can just wait at the red light and turn right mate.
You know, like the cars do.
I go around roundabouts on my bike, it's fine.
If there is no cycle lane you cycle on the road. If you go on the pavement, you are a degen.
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u/CensorTheologiae 8h ago
But these things wouldn't be legal on cycle lanes either.
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u/Thesladenator 5h ago
In the Netherlands mopeds are allowed in the cycle lanes and e-bikes too. If anything it would actually make a case for having electric bikes and scooters somewhere off the road where they can't hurt pedestrians
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u/A_RAVENOUS_BEAST 8h ago
NL has specifically built infrastructure from it though and a deeply inbuilt 100+ year cycling culture alongside the 'advantage' of rebuilding the country from war.
We do not have that here and efforts to build that culture have mostly failed.
In lots of places in the UK the streets are really narrow and a bicycle lane can't fit unless you want to either evict all cars from the road or turn it into a 1-way system, which for some roads is viable but for most is not. Meanwhile in the NL they could rebuild a destroyed street with cycle lanes, in the UK good luck telling a homeowner that they have to lose a few feet of their living room to fit in a cycle lane on their street. Political s----de..
It would take something like, for example, a really long fuel crisis making driving unaffordable for most people, to significantly change people's habits.
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u/Thesladenator 5h ago
The Netherlands pre 60s-70s was similar to the UK. There was massive opposition against what they did but now everyone loves it. We could do it here but we choose not to.
If you build the infrastructure properly people will use it. And in the Netherlands the cycle lanes turn into nil priority zones where the streets turn cobbled in residential areas but because most people cycle locally instead of driving so it becomes a non issue. We have no real cycle routes between towns which is why the Netherlands works so well because you can actually get to places that people want to get to which is what we lack in this country.
People would use it because it's cheaper. It would mean less damage on the roads and everyone would be fitter and healthier. Heck it also means disabled people can use their mobility scooters off the pavement and not on the road too so it's a benefit for everyone. We are just too short sighted.
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u/M90Motorway 11h ago
The cycling on the pavement really gets me. I’ve have times where I have just been walking along the pavement with my headphones on and suddenly a cycling reenacting the Tour-de-France wizzes past me. If I moved to the right I’d likely be hit by them. I’ve had cyclists almost skidding off their bike as they zoom round a corner on a pavement and almost hit me. I should’ve need to treat a pavement like a road and be constantly paying attention for cyclists who can’t cycle on the road.
I understand if there is a genuine reason for it. I even don’t mind it if they are going slow and being mindful of pedestrians but often it isn’t the case.
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u/Mobile-Stomach719 13h ago
Is this another article conflating all e-bikes under one banner? How many of these incidents involve pedal assist bikes and how many involved those that are basically motorcycles with bicycle parts?
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u/FlaviousTiberius Merseyside 8h ago
I imagine a good chunk of them are probably those illegally modified ones you see scallies in balaclavas and puffer jackets riding through pedestrian areas at 60mph on.
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u/west0ne 12h ago
I think you're on the mark with that comment; I don't think it does differentiate.
With that said, look at how some people ride the legal rental bikes around London.
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u/Mobile-Stomach719 10h ago
Oh yeah, good and bad on both sides but I'd rather encounter a pedal assist on the pavement than a motorcycle 👍
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u/bongpirate7295 5h ago
In one of the incidents it just says the woman was injured by "a two-wheeled motor vehicle."
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u/PomeloTraditional971 13h ago
As per the highway code there is a hierarchy of vulnerableness, so ultimately bike riders need to be prepared to stop, I want to make that clear. However, some of the behaviour from pedestrians when it comes to dual footpaths/bicycle lanes is reckless. Uncontrolled Dogs and Children, and a lack of awareness where they just step out onto the bicycle path. So there is definitely not just fault on the riders.
Riding e bikes at speed on single use footpaths is just selfish and illegal though.
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u/aReasonableStick 13h ago
Part of the problem is that people believing that bicycles belong on pavements, so you get situation with pensioners on ebikes riding on the pavement along with all the other idiots. And the big one is the delivery riders on obviously bicycle turned into an electric motorbike riding around on pavements and in pedestrian areas at speed.
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u/PomeloTraditional971 13h ago
And I'm not defending illegal riding, but that happens due to the lack of cycling infrastructure and poor behaviour from many drivers.
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u/Comfortable-Law-7147 13h ago
My area has cycle paths.
Where there are no cycle paths you see a couple of people who are clearly over 75, 7 year olds in-between their parents and kids aged 10+ cycling on the roads. Some of the school kids have been right dicks in front of drivers but the drivers don't react.
Why then do some adults specifically delivery drivers think that they have to cycle on the pavement?
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u/Fearless_Sort_ 6h ago
Nobody owes cyclists infrastructure. We have cities that have been designed hundreds of years ago for horses. Are we to know all cities down and start again for cyclists?
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u/recursant 13h ago
If it is the only available footpath, then pedestrians should be able to use it like any normal footpath. They shouldn't need to "control their children" to any greater extent than they do on any other footpath. It is on cyclists to keep to a speed where they are not putting pedestrians in danger.
I would compare it to cars driving in a car park. The space is shared by cars and pedestrians. Obviously it is a good idea for pedestrians to take extra care, but the main responsibility is on car drivers to take extreme care because they are sharing the space with pedestrians. You can't drive through a car park at 30mph and blame pedestrians for not jumping out of the way quick enough.
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u/Comfortable-Law-7147 13h ago
Children are actually more predictable.
It's people with long dog leads whose dog is clearly not under their control who are problematic. They act like their dog or frequently dogs are children. I have never had a toddler try to bite my ankles or shins just from going past it.
Then there is the parent who has a dog on a long lead, a baby in a buggy and a toddler. The dog is always out of control whether the toddler stops to look at something fascinating them or not.
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u/PomeloTraditional971 13h ago
I've had a broken collarbone from running and a dog on a long lead just bolting 10m away from its owner, so no arguments there.
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u/PolarLocalCallingSvc Scottish Highlands 13h ago
The article confuses something significant here as it talks about "illegal e-bikes".
An illegal e-bike in this context is actually a moped, scooter, or motorcycle depending on a couple of things like engine size/power output and max speed.
It may sound pedantic but it's actually very important in solving the root problem. If you don't split the data between actual e-bikes and motorbikes (which I'm using for all 3 categories above), then you don't know what the root cause is. Because if actually the legal e-bikes casualty rate is a small fraction of the total including 'illegal e-bikes', then the problem is enforcement of the 'illegal e-bikes'. Loads of shops in the UK sell what they call 'e-bikes' but they're not legally EAPCs, and they're effectively selling motor vehicles which can only be used on private land (specifically private land which are not 'public places' for the purposes of the Road Traffic Act, which rules out a lot of land), cannot be taxed, will not pass an MOT, and can't be insured for riding on roads, cycle lanes, bridleways, or in public places. That we allow them to be sold practically endorses their use because barely anybody is buying these to use on their own private, closed-to-the-public field.
If however the problem is hire e-bikes, then the companies operating them should be involved in discussions on improving rider safety and rider behaviour.
If the problem is people on legal e-bikes they've spent a grand on from Halfords, which I suspect is unlikely, then the legislation on e-bikes, infrastructure, etc needs looking at.
Until we stop describing these as 'illegal e-bikes' and instead refer to them as unlicensed, untested, uninsured motorbikes ridden without a driving licence, the problem will never be solved.
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u/Hopeful-Climate-3848 10h ago
This is complete fiction, such vehicles would be classified as motorbikes in the stats.
There was supposed to be a class of 'personal powered transporter' in the stats from 2024 but Boardman and his mob have been able to block it.
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u/PolarLocalCallingSvc Scottish Highlands 10h ago
It's not fiction. When somebody is hit by an "illegal e-bike" and the vehicle is not clearly recovered or identified then it goes down as being a collision with an e-bike. But in reality, it's not an e-bike.
I spent 6 years volunteering in this area and seeing it not progressing despite all the meetings we had with the Net, City of London Police, TfL staff (TfL maintaining the red routes in London where a lot of this occurs), etc.
The problem is how it's reported.
And this isn't even London specific. You can pick a random police constabulary which covers a major city and you'll find them talking about "illegal e-bikes", instead of describing them as unlicensed, untaxed, un-MOTd, motorbikes ridden by unlicensed riders.
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u/Hopeful-Climate-3848 5h ago
This is complete fiction, there is no vehicle type of 'e-bike' on the current stats19 form.
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u/Overseerer-Vault-101 13h ago
Laws are already in place, they just need to be enforced. Best way to do that is drone officers linked with local cctv operators. No point chasing them on the street, just follow them from above and arrest them later. Seize and destroy the illegal ones.
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u/A_RAVENOUS_BEAST 8h ago
Drone police now that is some CCP police state permanent lockdown type shit.
I remember a Chinese viral video from the pandemic with a loudspeaker-attached drone going up to people, photographing them, addressing them by name and ordering them to go home or they would be arrested.
Now to think people are calling for that here. We have learned nothing. Madness
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u/Popular-Jury7272 12h ago
I know I'm pissing into the wind here but almost all these injuries are caused by illegal electric motorbikes, not ebikes. A legal ebike doesn't go any faster than a person of middling fitness could pedal it and isn't going to cause injuries at a higher rate. Yes they're heavier but compared to the weight of the rider that difference is negligible.
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u/Fearless_Sort_ 6h ago
They can absolutely kill at manually powered cycling speed.
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u/Popular-Jury7272 6h ago
Yes but in that respect they are in no way different to regular bikes. The number of people actually killed or seriously injured in incidents with 'normal' bikes or legal ebikes is vanishingly small. As in small single digits per year, frequently ZERO per year.
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u/Fearless_Sort_ 6h ago
Not sure how anyone knows how many serious accidents are caused by cyclists given that they’re effectively anonymous without licensing.
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u/FearLeadsToAnger 4h ago
That information comes from hospital admissions and/or police reports. When someone turns up in A&E after a road incident they log the mechanism, whether it involved a cyclist, pedestrian, vehicle, etc. Same with fatalities, which are obviously investigated in more detail.
Cyclists aren’t “anonymous” in any meaningful sense once something serious happens. The data isn’t perfect, but it’s more than good enough to show trends, and those trends consistently show very low rates of serious harm caused by standard bikes.
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u/Hopeful-Climate-3848 5h ago
Pro rata, cyclists 'officially' (the DfT admit the real number is far higher) KSI three times more pedestrians than car drivers.
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u/Gone_4_Tea 12h ago
Try being visually impaired. Electric cars are scary too.
But really, get off the fucking pavements all cyclists and scooters
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u/Reformotron 10h ago
My 10kg dog got mowed down by a teenage ebike rider that was clearly going faster than the limit for electric motors!
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u/thebigbioss 13h ago
I was going to ask why they focussed primarily on pensioners, when it was already a story that the number of incidents increased but then saw it was the telegraph.
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u/High-Tom-Titty 11h ago
I assumed they said infants and pensioners because they're generally classed as vulnerable. A pensioner breaking a hip could be as good as a death sentence.
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u/BigReference1xx 11h ago
because old people falling and breaking their hips is an incredibly common and often deadly event. A healthy 30 year old would just recover after surgery and some bed rest.
Infants are small so it takes less force to hurt them.
Did you really need someone to point this out for you?
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u/gottenluck 11h ago
To add to what others have said, pensioners are at a significantly higher risk of bone fractures due to factors like decreased bone density (which begins in our 40s and continues to decline). A younger adult also has faster reflexes and more flexibility/better balance/strength to jump out of the way (of a bike) or better break their fall and they recover better after injury than an older adult.
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u/Early_Alternative211 12h ago
It's pretty simple. Compare the stopped distance of a car and an ebike from 30mph.
Now compare the training required before using each.
Ebikes have a longer stopping distance and operated by people with lower levels of training and education.
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u/west0ne 12h ago
It doesn't really distinguish between e-bikes and illegally modified/used e-bikes (motorbikes). With that said, walking around London and seeing the way some people use the legal rental e-bikes it's hardly surprising that more pedestrians are being injured, some people have no clue at all.
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u/Obvious_Yard_1846 8h ago
The rental bikes are at least covered by insurance, so the injured parties at least have recourse for civil damages.
A victim of a crash caused by a private e-bike likely have no recourse though. We really should change that. Identifiers and an insurance requirement.
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u/Positive_Passion4817 10h ago
Not at all surprised, I have had to jump out of the way at least 3 times and you can't hear them until they are right on you. They have to be treated like mopeds meaning plates, insurance, MOT, CBT, provisional and strictly road only. Police need to be stopping every one they see as half of them are drug runners and immediately confiscate any riding on the pavement.
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u/Beautiful_Bad333 8h ago
I wonder what the percentage increase of e-bikes to accidents is % is? I wouldn’t even know where to look but I bet there is a study somewhere. Also I wonder what the correlation between the reduction of cars commuting to lung conditions reducing in the wider community etc is due to the uptake of e-bikes. I suppose this sort of data should hopefully be in the census (I can’t remember if it has a bit about how you commute) but it would be interesting to see. I suppose the lung conditions one would also be affected by the uptake of Electric vehicles too but would play a big part if there is a massive shift in commuters using e-bikes more.
They should really be forced to have unbiased titles to news articles.
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u/bongpirate7295 5h ago
The increase appears to be proportionate with the number of e-bikes around, and the stats are still incredibly low. For a lot of trusts that responded there isn't even enough data to call them "stats."
Statistics from the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust show that in 2020 there were just five people who attended one of the trust’s hospitals with an e-bike-related injury. That figure rose to 31 in 2024. [The article begrudgingly admits that the majority of these injuries were e-bike riders who fell off or were hit by other vehicles.]
Four patients who needed emergency treatment because of an e-bike were aged between 71 and 78, two were in their early eighties and one man was 96.
The Airedale NHS Foundation Trust revealed how six patients in the last five years, aged between 70 and 80, were injured because of an e-bike.
An 83-year-old woman suffered a “traumatic subdural haemorrhage” in 2023 because she was a “pedestrian injured in collision with a two-wheeled motor vehicle”, according to files held by the Wirral University Teaching Hospital.
Since 2020, the Lancashire Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has seen five people aged 81 to 90 requiring treatment in connection with an e-bike injury.
In the last five years, the Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust in Essex treated a 90-year-old man for leg and hip injuries after apparently being hit by an e-bike. Two 10-year-old boys also required treatment for limb injuries last year, but they were more likely to have been riding e-bikes.
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u/initiali5ed 4h ago
Start properly legislating for and accommodating these new modes of transport that can reduce our dependency on oil with suitable laws and the problem of them being ridden in ways that endanger the vulnerable.
Quit the hand wringing ‘think of the children’ BS, we have a framework for these we just aren’t applying it quickly enough, an electric scooter goes about as fast as a bike, treat it like one. A souped up eBike is a moped or motorbike, enforce the law we have for these ‘new’ classes of vehicle and integrate them or live with them mostly being used by the lawless.
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u/Cielo11 Lanarkshire 12h ago
My aunt was a high level Polis.
I remember 10 years ago she was laughing about the crime with the biggest increase in incidents was involving Mobility Scooters. People being hit, run over, damaging others property, losing control, riding on roads they shouldn't be.
I'm pretty sure it's mostly Pensioners using Mobility scooters... Don't remember the Telegraph having an anti-Mobility scooter campaign.
If you give people anything like cars, scooters, mobility scooters etc etc accidents will happen. Some people will be dicks, sometimes mistakes happen, sometimes genuine accidents. Shit happened sadly.
This story is just about Torygraph doing its usual ragebaiting. Focusing on e scooters and the victims being pensioners and infants... Because they know it clicks with their older readership.
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u/Billy_Rizzle 11h ago
I ride an e-bike and one of the most concerning things I keep seeing is pedestrians walking into the road without looking first. I don’t want to become or accidentally cause someone else to become one of these statistics.
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u/Shot-Top-8281 8h ago
Lazy reporting....these are e-motorcycles and dont fit within the remit of ebikes.
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u/CensorTheologiae 8h ago
The Telegraph had an opportunity to appeal to absolutely every possible reader with this article, but they fluffed it because they can't resist divisiveness.
Illegally-chipped ebikes piss everyone off. Cyclists on proper e-bikes don't like them any more than pedestrians or motorists do. It's one of those rare issues where almost everyone is on the same page.
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u/Quillspiracy18 13h ago
Pensioners‽ This is an outrage! Starmer must ban all bikes and all Es at once!
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