Electric Bike Accident Statistics for 2026

E-bike sales in the U.S. hit an estimated 1.7 million units in 2024, a 72% jump from the year before [2]. The injury data has followed that same steep climb. Federal agencies and trauma researchers are still catching up with how fast e-bikes have spread, but the numbers available tell a clear story.

This page compiles the most current e-bike accident statistics from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), peer-reviewed medical research, and city-level safety reports. All figures reflect the latest published data as of early 2026.

How Fast the E-Bike Market Has Grown

Context matters when reading injury statistics. E-bike injuries are rising partly because there are dramatically more e-bikes on the road than five years ago.

U.S. e-bike imports jumped from roughly 990,000 units in 2023 to 1.7 million in 2024 [2]. About 1.5 million were sold domestically in 2025. The market is valued at approximately $2 billion.

That growth has outpaced infrastructure. Most American cities still lack protected bike lanes, let alone lanes designed for riders moving at 20 to 28 mph. Many states don't have e-bike-specific traffic regulations on the books.

E-Bike Emergency Room Visits

The CPSC tracks micromobility injuries through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), a nationally representative sample of about 100 hospital emergency departments across the U.S.

From 2017 through 2022, an estimated 53,200 ER visits were tied to e-bike incidents [1]. Nearly half of those (about 24,400) happened in 2022 alone [1]. A cross-sectional study published through the National Institutes of Health found that e-bike injuries climbed from 751 in 2017 to 23,493 in 2022, with 5,462 of those cases requiring hospitalization [3].

Across all micromobility products (e-bikes, e-scooters, hoverboards), estimated emergency department visits rose from 34,000 in 2017 to 87,800 in 2023 [4]. Over that full seven-year window, roughly 448,600 injuries were treated in U.S. emergency departments [4].

E-bike injuries specifically surged 293% between 2019 and 2022 [1]. Hospitalizations increased 43-fold during the 2017 to 2022 period [3].

E-Bike Fatalities in the United States

Fatality tracking for e-bikes remains fragmented. The NTSB acknowledged in its micromobility safety study that a lack of "complete, consistent, and reliable data" means official counts almost certainly understate the real number [5].

The NTSB documented 53 known e-bike fatalities in the U.S. [5]. The CPSC recorded at least 233 deaths associated with all micromobility devices between 2017 and 2022 [4]. In 2022, NHTSA's national traffic safety data counted 966 pedalcyclist fatalities, including e-bike riders for the first time in its reporting [13].

At the city level, New York City saw bicycle deaths hit a 24-year high in 2023 with 30 fatalities. Twenty-three of those riders were on e-bikes [14].

Motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of e-bike deaths, accounting for approximately 55% of fatalities [4]. About 15% of fatal incidents involve loss of control, such as striking fixed objects or road curbs [4].

Age, Gender, and Who's Most at Risk

E-bike injuries and fatalities are not evenly distributed across demographics.

Children and teens are disproportionately affected. A pediatric study using NEISS data found the 10-to-13 age group was the most commonly injured, making up over 44% of pediatric e-bike cases [7]. Across all micromobility devices, children 14 and under accounted for roughly 36% of injuries from 2017 to 2022, double their 18% share of the U.S. population [4].

Men account for about 80% of e-bike fatalities [4].

Older adults face the worst outcomes per crash. Adults aged 41 to 50 who visited the emergency department had a 16.4% admission rate, and those 51 and older had an 11.3% rate, both significantly higher than younger age groups [11]. Many of these crashes are single-rider incidents involving tipping over at low speed, misjudging a turn, or losing balance on uneven pavement.

Head Injuries and Helmet Rates

Head trauma is the most alarming pattern in the e-bike injury data.

E-bike-related head trauma increased 49-fold nationally between 2017 and 2022 [6]. Traumatic brain injuries from e-bike crashes tend to be more severe than those from pedal bicycle crashes, partly because of the speed difference at impact [6].

Helmet use among injured e-bike riders is strikingly low. In cases where helmet status was documented, 97.3% of e-bike riders involved in injury incidents were not wearing a helmet [7]. For comparison, 82.1% of injured pedal bicycle riders and 87.2% of injured moped riders were also unhelmeted [7].

E-bike crashes carry 2.4 times the odds of severe injury compared to pedal bicycle crashes [7]. The hospitalization rate for e-bike injuries sits at 11.5%, versus 7% for mopeds and 4.8% for traditional bicycles [7]. 

This is why brake type matters when evaluating any e-bike purchase; budget brands like Actbest ship with mechanical disc brakes that require more stopping distance than hydraulic setups, a factor riders should weigh alongside price.

What Causes E-Bike Crashes

The data breaks e-bike crashes into two broad categories.

Rider falls are the single most common cause of injury, accounting for about 40% of e-bike crashes [4]. This includes tipping over, misjudging turns, and losing balance on uneven surfaces.

Motor vehicle collisions cause about 32% of injuries but a far larger share of deaths, roughly 55% of all fatalities [4]. Intersections and turns are the highest-risk zones, where drivers routinely misjudge how fast an e-bike is traveling.

Speed is the underlying factor. E-bikes reach 20 to 28 mph without pedal assistance, about twice the average speed of a traditional bicycle [6]. Some budget models like the Aipas M2 Pro exceed 36 mph in unrestricted mode, pushing well past Class 3 limits and into territory where braking performance becomes critical. Multiple research teams have concluded that e-bike injury patterns resemble motorcycle crashes more closely than bicycle crashes [8].

Understanding how Class 1 vs Class 2 eBike differences affect top speed and throttle behavior is relevant for riders choosing a class that matches how and where they plan to ride.

When hospitalization follows an e-bike crash, fractures make up 51.2% of cases and concussions account for 29.9% [3].

E-Bike Injuries vs. Traditional Bicycle Injuries

The comparison between e-bikes and pedal bicycles keeps surfacing across studies.

The death rate for e-bike accidents is roughly 37 times higher than for traditional bicycle crashes [10]. Hospitalization rates are more than double, 11.5% vs. 4.8% [7]. E-bike crashes produce more internal injuries, more concussions, and more spinal injuries [8]. The American College of Surgeons has flagged e-bikes as "an emerging public health hazard" [10].

Speed explains most of the severity gap. But usage patterns play a role too. E-bikes get ridden longer distances, more often in mixed traffic, and increasingly by delivery workers logging full shifts in dense urban environments. Comparing per-ride risk isn't straightforward when the riding profiles differ that much. 

For riders evaluating whether an electric bike vs regular bike is the right call for their situation, understanding the speed and usage differences is part of that decision.

Lithium-Ion Battery Fires

E-bike batteries present a separate category of risk from road crashes.

In New York City, lithium-ion batteries caused 277 fires in 2024, up slightly from 268 in 2023 [9]. Deaths dropped sharply, though. Battery-related fatalities fell from 18 in 2023 to 6 in 2024, a 67% decrease that the FDNY attributed to public awareness campaigns and enforcement [9].

The FDNY's Lithium-ion Battery Task Force inspected 585 e-bike shops in 2024, a 25% increase over the prior year [9]. They issued 426 summonses and 138 violation orders [9].

These fires cluster in areas with heavy e-bike delivery usage. The risk traces primarily to uncertified or damaged batteries and improper indoor charging, not to certified e-bike products as a category.

State and City Spotlights

California saw e-bike incidents rise 18.6-fold between 2018 and 2023, from 184 reported events to 3,429 [12]. That 1,800% increase tracks with the state's rapid adoption, driven partly by e-bike rebate programs.

New York City has become the most closely studied e-bike market in the country. The 2023 fatality data, with 23 of 30 cyclist deaths on e-bikes, drove significant policy changes including mandatory registration proposals and expanded battery safety regulations [14].

Gaps in the Data

Nearly every source cited on this page comes with a caveat about incomplete data. The NTSB said it directly [5]. Many states still don't distinguish between e-bike and bicycle crashes in their traffic reports. Hospital coding systems only recently started separating e-bike injuries from general bicycle injuries. And crashes that don't result in an ER visit go unreported entirely.

The numbers here almost certainly undercount the real scope of e-bike injuries and fatalities in the United States. As tracking improves and more states adopt e-bike-specific reporting, the picture will get clearer.

Where the Trend Is Heading

E-bike sales aren't slowing. The U.S. market is projected to grow at 7% to 16% annually through 2030 [2]. More riders means more exposure, and without meaningful infrastructure improvements or consistent helmet adoption, the injury curve is not likely to flatten on its own.

The data points to a few areas where the gap between adoption and safety is widest. Children riding without helmets. Older adults facing severe outcomes from low-speed falls. Urban delivery riders navigating heavy traffic for hours at a time. Those are the populations showing up most in the emergency department data, and they stand to benefit most from targeted safety measures.

Sources

[1] CPSC, "E-Scooter and E-Bike Injuries Soar: 2022 Injuries Increased Nearly 21%," 2024

[2] PeopleForBikes, "Electric Bicycle Market Insights," 2024

[3] NIH/NLM, "Electric Bicycle Injuries and Hospitalizations," 2024

[4] CPSC, "Micromobility Products-Related Deaths, Injuries, and Hazard Patterns, 2017-2023"

[5] NTSB, "Micromobility: Data Challenges Associated with Assessing Safety," 2022

[6] NPR, "E-bike head trauma soars as helmet use falls, study finds," 2024

[7] NIH/NLM, "E-bikes are an increasingly common pediatric public health problem," 2023

[8] NIH/NLM, "Comparison of Injury Patterns: Electric Bicycle, Bicycle and Motorcycle Accidents," 2021

[9] FDNY/NYC.gov, "Progress in the Battle Against Lithium-Ion Battery Fires," 2025

[10] American College of Surgeons, "Electric Bikes Are Emerging as Public Health Hazard," 2024

[11] NIH/NLM, "Age as a Predictive Factor in Severity of Injuries," 2022

[12] UCSF, "Electric Scooter and Bike Accidents Are Soaring Across the U.S.," 2024

[13] NHTSA, "Bicyclists and Other Cyclists: 2022 Data"

[14] U.S. Rep. Gottheimer, "New E-Bike Safety Plan to Protect Children," 2024