SALT LAKE CITY—After a child was hit and killed last fall while riding an e-bike in Farmington and several other accidents, Rep. Paul Cutler, R-Centerville, is running HB381 that would put some parameters in place for the safety of the riders and also drivers who might not see them until it’s too late. 

“I was so saddened by the tragic death of the young man in Farmington who was riding an e-bike and killed,” said Cutler. “After that tragic death, we’d had some other complaints from various cities. We decided to get the chiefs of police together and we got some other city municipal leaders together and said, ‘what would make sense? How could we improve safety while still enabling more kids to ride?’”

Almost every municipality in the state has been having challenges with kids riding motorcycles, with underage kids riding these high powered scooters and other electric devices on the street,” said Cutler. “It’s really a safety hazard. We want more kids riding bikes but we want them to do it safely.”

One of the most important things the bill does is take these high powered scooters or other bikes that don’t meet normal e-bike regulations and put them in a new category called high power electric devices, he said. “It basically says, if this device is as powerful as a motorcycle and can go as fast as a motorcycle, then it treats them with some of the same regulations as a motorcycle.”

If it’s a legitimate scooter or e-bike that meets the standard specs for a scooter or e-bike, then it allows use on roads and highways under certain situations, Cutler said. “So it helps parents understand if they’re buying a bike, whether this is a legitimate bike that can be used on the road or is this really a motorcycle that’s being marketed as an e-bike.”

There’s a couple of elements of the bill, he said. “The most important is that it clarifies the definition of an e-motorcycle. It makes it clear that the motorcycles are treated just like all other motorcycles, like gas motorcycles. You have to have a driver’s license and you have to have a motorcycle endorsement in order to ride those on the roads.”

The other element is this sets up a training, said Cutler. “State law says that kids under a certain age, 10-14 can only ride these powerful e-bikes under the direct supervision of their parents or a responsible adult. This allows a wider policy by setting up training to know what the bike rules are and what the rules for riding on the road are and then you can get a safety certificate that will allow you to ride bikes without your parents independently.”

It starts at 8 years old, so 8-16, he said. “This is modeled after the off highway vehicle program where they’ve done similar things to have a training class that kids watch online before they’re authorized to ride these powerful devices.”

This bill only deals with traffic on a highway, Cutler said. “We don’t deal with sidewalks, we don’t want to deal with trails. We don’t deal with things that are off on the side of the road. It’s only the highway itself.”

E-motorcycles have been tearing up parks, he said. “They’re very powerful, in lots of situations they're evading law enforcement and law enforcement would like some more tools to help with this.”

“I’ve been a nurse for 20 years,” said Catherine Stokes, representing Intermountain Health, during the public comment period of the Senate Transportation, Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology Committee. “Most of the time I spent in the pediatric ICU at Primary children’s Hospital. I now serve as the injury prevention and trauma outreach coordinator, so I have the privilege of trying to prevent children from ever needing the ICU I worked in.”

At Primary Children’s there has been a 66.7% increase in e-bike and e-scooter injuries in just one year, she said. “Riders as young as 8 years old coming in with life threatening injuries. The severity of these accidents is much higher than a typical scooter or a bike because of the speed, so the energy transfer that occurs is taken in by the tiny body of the child.”

HB381 received a favorable recommendation by a unanimous vote to send it to the Senate floor. As of press time the bill was on the Senate 2nd Reading Calendar.