On a late afternoon e-bike ride with friends in his Miramar neighborhood, 11-year-old Varren Lacoste hit a signpost straight-on and cracked open his forehead.
Racing from work to the hospital, his father, Smith Lacoste, arrived to see the profuse bleeding. “The gash was gruesome,” he recalls.
Doctors at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood gave Varren 21 stitches to close the gap. He had lacerations to his lip and cheek. And, although a scan showed an orbital fracture, they told the family the injury would heal on its own.
Smith said his son has a helmet but wasn’t wearing it as he cruised the neighborhood on the electric bicycle. He now wears his helmet every time he rides. So do his friends.
“It was tragic for our family, but it was a lesson to be learned for him. Not only for him, but for all the kids in the community,” Smith said.
E-bikes are experiencing a massive surge in popularity, nationwide and in South Florida. This rise, though, has been accompanied by a spike in accidents and emergency room visits, outpacing traditional bike risks, particularly among children and teens, who often suffer head injuries from riding faster than they can control, according to the American College of Surgeons.
Local hospitals are seeing injuries
At Memorial Healthcare System in southern Broward County, trauma alerts from e-bike accidents are spiking, signaling more severe injuries. The health system recorded a 178% increase in e-bike/e-scooter trauma alerts from 2024 to 2025, and that trend appears to be continuing in 2026. The majority of trauma patients are male.
Memorial data shows helmet use among those injured is low. In 2025, 82% of trauma injuries in the health system occurred among riders who were not wearing helmets.
“The vast majority of our patients that we’re seeing who are injured on e-bikes or e-scooters are not wearing any form of protective gear, much less helmets,” said Dr. Oliver Lao, medical director of pediatric trauma services and surgeon at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. “So that leads to more injury head trauma, skull fracture, head bleed, lacerations, abrasions and orthopedic injuries. I wouldn’t ride without a helmet because those head injuries are the most severe injuries that we see.”
In contrast to bicycles, e-bikes can go up to 30 mph, and even faster with modifications.
“At those higher speeds, they are turning more into motorcycles and less so bicycles,” Lao said.
Helmetless e-bike riders enter Rickards Middle School in Oakland Park on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. E-bikes are experiencing a massive surge in popularity, nationwide and in South Florida. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
What the law says
In March, Florida lawmakers passed a bill placing new speed limits and safety rules on e-bikes. Riders would be prohibited from exceeding 10 mph on sidewalks or pedestrian areas within 50 feet of a person. The bill also would create a statewide task force to track all crashes. As of Friday afternoon, it awaited the governor’s approval.
Citing a surge in reckless riding and pedestrian close-calls, some South Florida municipalities are launching safety campaigns or passing ordinances to regulate e-bikes on neighborhood streets and sidewalks.
“A lot of times I see them on the street, and they are weaving close to cars, motorcycles and trucks,” Lao said. “But if they’re on the sidewalk, I think it’s just as dangerous for the joggers, the walkers, and the people out walking their dogs.”
Aventura, for example, ruled e-bikes must be pedal-powered, with motors off, unless in a bicycle lane, and riders must give pedestrians an audible signal before passing while on an e-scooter or e-bike. Cities like Weston and Parkland have published e-bike safety reminders and set rules for their use on public trails.
Pediatric ER doctors and surgeons say many parents don’t realize how fast e-bikes can go, or that their children know how to modify them.
“These kids are figuring out ways to jailbreak them,” Solomon said. “They are finding different apps on the internet and they are just making them go faster. A parent might think that they’re buying a bike that goes 15 miles an hour and all of a sudden it goes up to 28 or 30 miles an hour. That’s a completely different animal.”
Varren Lacoste, 11, of Miramar, rides his e-bike on Friday, April 3, 2026. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Lao, the pediatric surgeon, wants to see more education around e-bikes.
“I would really stress the importance of moms, dads, families, children, doing their homework on what they’re purchasing, what its capabilities are, and what kind of protective gear they can potentially wear with it, especially for those higher velocity e-bikes.”
In Florida, the law requires helmets for bike riders younger than age 16. Safety experts strongly recommend them for those older than 16, too, but state law does not require them.
Rachele Solomon, trauma injury prevention coordinator at Memorial Healthcare System, found through studying injury data that wearing a full-coverage helmet is critical when riding e-bikes at high speeds.
The standard bicycle helmet is not safety-rated for speeds greater than 15 mph, she pointed out.
“Helmets save lives and we know you should be wearing them,” Solomon said. “It’s kind of like wearing your seatbelt when you get in the car.”
The American College of Surgeons says the type of helmet should be determined by the electric bike’s speed.
Varren Lacoste, seen here with friends, now makes sure to wear a helmet for his e-bike rides. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
All ages are getting injured
Of course, it’s not just teens riding e-bikes. People of all ages are using them for delivery work, commutes or just for fun, and older adults use them to keep up with their kids or their friends on group rides.
Memorial trauma data shows e-bike/e-scooter accidents have happened to those as young as 2 and up to 84.
“It’s kind of like when I was a kid, people had bicycles, and now kids have electric devices,” Solomon said. “But they’re much more dangerous than bicycles in a sense because they go faster.”
Post-accident, Varren still sports a forehead scar and continues to ride his e-bike in his Miramar neighborhood with friends. Now, though, he prepares for the ride.
“They love these bikes, they really do,” said his father, Smith. “But now my son is putting on his pads, his helmet, he’s doing all the prep work before he even gets on the bike.”
South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.
