🔗 Share this article

NSW police have issued a fine against an US-based online influencer and served two driving violation citations for reported reckless operation after a large group of electric bicycle users gathered on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during peak-hour traffic on a weekday.

The Event: A Prohibited Ride

A gathering of approximately 40 people operating electric bikes and motorbikes proceeded along the bridge’s main deck, an area where bicycle riding is banned. The riders then turned around and rode through the downtown area and a nearby district.

"This had a risk of people to be injured and killed," remarked a senior police official the officer on the following day.

Law enforcement said they did not immediately pursue the group due to safety concerns but instead located the assembly at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the Botanic Gardens, at which point they broke up.

Fines Imposed for Content Creator

On Saturday, police announced they had served the American online personality who goes by the influencer, twenty-six, with two traffic infringement notices for careless operation (with no death or previous bodily harm), carrying a fine of $562 and three demerit points each, in relation to the bridge incident. Officials noted that the investigation is ongoing.

The personality is said to have over 3.4m subscribers on YouTube and over 1.2 million on the social media app.

Creator's Response

The online figure gave comments to a local publication recently after the incident spread rapidly on news sites and social media, saying he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a negative image.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was one of the safest ride-outs I have witnessed," he said. "I am a visitor here, so I’m going to come here respecting the rules and standards of Sydney. So when I decided to do a meet and greet it did not involve a group ride, it was just to say hi under the bridge."

"I did not know the area well, it was my fault we ended up on the bridge and I had two choices: whether the group completes the entirety of the bridge and turns around, which is a crime. Or we turn around, essentially, before we’re on the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to turn around."

National Debate on Electric Bike Rules

The increase of electric bicycles on roads nationwide has sparked growing calls for regulation. The federal health minister, the minister, commented that illegal ebikes were a "total menace on the road."

"Kids have done stupid things on bikes ever since the penny-farthing [but] the harm that are coming into our hospital emergency departments are absolutely devastating," he said. "We’ve got to ensure we stop these things coming into the country [and] police are given the powers to crack down, to confiscate them, to crush them, to dispose of them."

The state recorded 226 injuries related to ebikes in the previous year. But, in the first seven months of the following year, that figure jumped to 233 injuries plus four deaths.