Healthcare

Here Are Some Of The Craziest Stories Involving E-Bikes

A hospital room. (Screen Capture/PBS North Carolina Channel)

As electric bicycles flood American streets, emergency rooms are seeing a growing toll of injuries tied to the increasingly popular two-wheelers.

A statewide analysis from Florida found 1,725 e-bike crashes resulting in injuries — including 70 fatalities — between 2021 and 2024. The series of hospitalizations has prompted the District Attorney’s Office of Orange County, California to organize the first of its kind e-bike and e-motorcycle buyback in September.

Here are some of the wildest e-bike fiascoes in recent months.

Caught Between A Bug And A Hard Place

August 2026: A 44-year-old woman on an e-bike found herself pinned underneath a Volkswagen Beetle. The woman was riding her two-wheeler without a helmet when she crashed into the car and got trapped in the process, according to Fox News. Police and a group of bystanders helped to lift the Beetle and rescue her.

Local business owner Chrissy Vollmer, who responded to the scene, described what she saw to the outlet.

“All I saw were the lady’s legs underneath the car, and she was just yelling, ‘Get this car off of me,'” Vollmer said.

Damage Inflicted No Riding Required

May 2026: Firefighters responded to a garage engulfed in flame at an Ann Arbor, according to CBS News. It seemed the structure had spontaneously combusted. Recovered home surveillance footage showed an e-bike parked inside was the volatile villain, whose lithium battery exploded of its own volition.

“This incident serves as an important reminder that lithium-ion battery fires can occur even when devices are not actively charging,” the Ann Arbor Fire Department said in the article.

The Bike Stops Deer

November 2025: A 13-year-old boy was speeding home at dusk, when his e-bike collided with a deer, according to CBS News. The young teenager found himself fighting for his life after the vehicle hit the animal with enough force to literally stop the buck — and kill it.

Emergency responders found the bike, the buck, and the boy right in front of a yellow “Watch Out For Deer” sign.

A Smashing Entrance

August 2025: A 23-year-old man took his e-bike out for an afternoon spin when it suddenly lost control, as reported by News 12 Long Island.

The bike’s tire hit a curb, pitched him over the handle bars and sent him straight through the window of an Italian restaurant. The man was sent to the hospital with “severe but non-life threatening injuries.”