Mom warned about son's e-bike before US veteran killed in crash — now she faces jail. The e-motor laws and costs to know

ABC News, GoFundMe

A 14-year-old who prosecutors say was doing wheelies on a 58-mph electric motorcycle struck and killed an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran walking home from his teaching job in Lake Forest, Calif. — and now his mother is facing up to seven years and eight months in state prison if convicted.

Ed Ashman, a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps who flew combat missions in Vietnam, was struck on April 16, 2026, while walking home from his substitute teaching job at El Toro High School. He died on April 30, two weeks after the crash (1). The teen rider fled the scene.

His mother, Tommi Jo Mejer, 50, of Aliso Viejo, Calif., had been warned roughly 10 months earlier that letting her son ride the bike was illegal and could land her in criminal court. She had already bought him the e-motorcycle and told deputies she knew he rode it recklessly (2).

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On May 1, Orange County prosecutors upgraded her charges to include involuntary manslaughter. She is now charged with one felony count of involuntary manslaughter, one felony count of child endangerment, one felony count of accessory after the fact, two misdemeanor counts — contributing to the delinquency of a minor and providing false information to a peace officer — and an infraction for permitting an unlicensed minor to drive a motor vehicle (1).

The case drew national attention after Mejer’s original arrest in April, with ABC News and other outlets covering the initial child endangerment charges (4).

Mejer’s case is the third Orange County parent prosecution this year tied to a kid on an illegal e-motorcycle, and prosecutors say she will not be the last.

The warning a year before the crash

In June 2025, Mejer called the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to complain that someone was posting pictures of her then-13-year-old son riding an e-motorcycle (2). During a 28-minute interaction with two deputies captured on body-worn camera, Mejer told them she had purchased her son a Surron e-motorcycle and knew he drove it recklessly. The deputies warned her that she could face criminal charges if she continued to allow him to ride the e-motorcycle, which he could not legally ride (2).

The bike was a 2025 Surron Ultra Bee. A law enforcement inspection classified it as a motor-driven cycle or motorcycle under the California Vehicle Code, requiring a motorcycle license, DMV registration, license plate, insurance and full motorcycle equipment for street operation (2). Surron markets the Ultra Bee as an off-road e-motorcycle that hits 58 mph and accelerates from 0 to 31 mph in 2.3 seconds. With a peak power of 12.5 kW, its output is 16 times the legal limit for an e-bike (2).

It is sold next to bicycles. It is not a bicycle.

Surron sells the Ultra Bee in the U.S. as an off-road-only vehicle and does not offer a street-legal U.S. version, though it produces one for European markets. But the bikes are often sold alongside bicycles in stores and on retail sites, and U.S. retailers sometimes list them under “e-bike” categories despite their motorcycle classification (5).

Three Orange County parents charged in five months

The other two cases came earlier this year (1).

In March 2026, prosecutors charged Yorba Linda, Calif., father Richard John Eyssallenne, 39, with felony child endangerment after his 12-year-old son ran a red light on a modified Talaria and was hit by a car. The boy was given the e-motorcycle as a Christmas present and had already had it impounded once before the July 2025 collision that left him with a fractured skull, an intracranial bleed and several other broken bones (3). The bike had been modified to reach 60 mph. Eyssallenne faces up to six years in state prison if convicted on all counts (3).

District Attorney Todd Spitzer has been blunt about the message. “Parents who buy their child an e-motorcycle and let them ride them illegally or help modify e-bikes to transform them into e-motorcycles are handing their children a loaded weapon — and those parents are going to be prosecuted. That is not a threat. That is a promise” (2).

When an e-bike is legally a motorcycle

Most parents shopping at a bike shop have no idea where e-bikes end and motorcycles begin. The legal distinction matters in every state.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, more than 40 states have adopted a three-class e-bike system: Class 1 (pedal-assist up to 20 mph), Class 2 (throttle up to 20 mph) and Class 3 (pedal-assist up to 28 mph) (6). The federal cap, set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, is a 750-watt motor with a top motor-only speed of 20 mph. Bikes that exceed those limits — or that have been modified to do so — are no longer e-bikes under the law. They are motorcycles, with all the licensing, registration and insurance requirements that come with one.

Surron and Talaria models, which have grown popular with teens, exceed the federal e-bike thresholds straight from the factory. Modifying a legal e-bike — removing a speed limiter, swapping pedals for pegs — flips its classification too. In one Orange County case, a father was charged with helping his son modify an e-bike by changing the pedals to motorcycle pegs and removing the governor that capped its speed (3).

What legal ownership actually costs

A Surron Ultra Bee or Talaria runs roughly $4,000 to $6,000 at the sticker. Owning one legally on public streets typically means a motorcycle license, state registration, plates, motorcycle-grade insurance and full motorcycle equipment.

Impoundment fees, towing and daily storage charges add up fast, with a 30-day impoundment running well over $1,500 in some jurisdictions before any fines are factored in.

The bigger financial risk is the insurance gap. Standard homeowners and auto policies generally exclude motorized vehicles like motorcycles, and umbrella policies typically follow whatever the underlying policies cover. A kid on an unregistered e-motorcycle who hurts someone may leave the family with no insurance response at all, meaning anything a court awards comes out of the family’s own pocket.

The toll on children’s hospitals

Dr. Justin Assioun, who treats e-bike injuries at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, has watched the curve bend in real time. “[In 2021] we had three trauma activations related to e-bike accidents,” he told KPBS in March. “Fast forward to the end of 2025 and the number was 262” (7).

Rady Children’s, the Level 1 pediatric trauma center for Southern California, has produced two separate studies on the trend. One found that by 2023, e-bikes accounted for nearly 40% of all serious crash injuries among riders under 18 treated at the hospital. A second study, presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting in March, tracked e-bike trauma activations specifically — from 2% of pediatric trauma activations in 2017 to 64% in 2023 (8).

Other regions are reporting the same pattern. Memorial Healthcare System in South Florida said e-bike and e-scooter injuries jumped 178% from 2024 to 2025, with more than half of its pediatric injuries last year involving children ages 12 to 15 (9). Penn State Health Children’s Hospital said it had treated more children for e-bike and e-scooter injuries by late 2025 than in the previous three years combined (10).

How cities and schools are responding

Police departments are seeing the on-the-ground version of those numbers. In Oceanside, Calif., e-bike complaints jumped from 69 in 2021 to 918 in 2025 — a more than 1,200% increase. “We haven’t seen much of a decrease in our calls for service and community complaints,” Capt. Scott Garrett told KPBS in January (11). The Oceanside City Council is now considering an amendment to let police seize e-bikes from offenders.

School districts are responding too. Newport-Mesa Unified School District, in Orange County, is banning elementary and middle school students from bringing e-bikes or other motorized vehicles on campus beginning in the 2026-27 school year; high schoolers are still allowed but must complete safety training (12).

For Ed Ashman’s family — his wife Pam, three children and grandchildren — none of that will bring him back. A GoFundMe set up by a family friend is helping cover his medical and funeral expenses (13). And for Tommi Mejer, her family is facing the emotional and financial consequences of a possible conviction and the civil suit likely to follow.

Mejer is scheduled to be arraigned May 21 at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach (1).

Mom warned about son’s e-bike before US veteran killed in crash — now she faces jail. The e-motor laws and costs to know