Huntington Beach launches e-bike safety program aimed at lowering its high rate of crashes

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- The Huntington Beach Police Department is launching an e-bike safety program to help mitigate the area's high rate of crashes.

Electric bicycles have exploded in popularity over the last few years, especially with children.

Evan Eatmon, a 15-year-old Huntington Beach resident, and his 11-year-old brother, Brent, were gifted e-bikes for Christmas.

"I love pretty much everything about it," Evan said. "It's powerful. It accelerates really quickly and I feel like it's easy to use. It's not very difficult."

In Huntington Beach, the rapid rise in e-bikes has created public safety concerns involving young riders.

"I've seen too many kids, just recently, I saw several kids just blow right through a red light, clueless to how close they came to getting slaughtered by the oncoming cars," said Mayor Pat Burns.

According to the Huntington Beach Police Department, the number of reported e-bike crashes involving children has more than doubled in the last few years, from 72 in 2022 to 147 in 2024.

"If we can educate our youth to be safer riders, to be more obedient to rules, regulations and just to go out there and do what we all did as kids, have fun but be safe, then our goal was achieved," HBPD Police Chief Eric Parra said.

The city is the first in the country to offer a free police-led e-bike safety program for kids.

Riders receive hands-on training in navigating obstacles, reaction time awareness and emergency braking.

"I didn't know putting the front and rear brakes on had such an impact, so I was really shocked by that demonstration over there," Evan said.

"Whenever you're turning, you can't have the pedal down because then you can scrap it and fall over, so I think that's a big thing that I didn't know before," Brent added.

Most importantly, parents are required to attend.

"The demonstration that they initially did about how fast the bike is going and how long it takes for them to actually brake was pretty alarming to see," said Stacy Eatmon, Evan and Brent's mother.

Organizers hope the program helps raise awareness of the dangers and encourages e-bike riders to stay vigilant while on the road.

"I feel very fortunate that they're able to do this and for me to be here as well so that I can go home and reinforce all the things that they're learning," Stacy said.

The city and parents hope these kids ride away with some extra knowledge of these e-bikes.

The next session will be held on Friday.