🔗 Share this article

New South Wales authorities have issued a fine against an US-based online influencer and handed out two traffic infringement notices for reported reckless operation following a swarm of electric bicycle users converged on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the busy commute on a weekday.

The Event: A Prohibited Ride

A gathering of approximately 40 individuals operating electric bikes and motorbikes travelled along the bridge’s main deck, an area where bicycle riding is banned. The assembly then turned around and traveled through the downtown area and a nearby district.

"This had a risk of serious injury or fatalities," stated a senior police official the officer on the following day.

Law enforcement indicated they did not chase right away the riders out of concerns for public safety but instead located the group at a scenic Sydney lookout near the city gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Influencer

On Saturday, authorities stated they had served the US social media influencer known as the influencer, twenty-six, with two traffic infringement notices for negligent driving (not involving death or prior injury), carrying a fine of $562 and penalty points per notice, in relation to the bridge incident. They added that inquiries were continuing.

The influencer is said to have over 3.4m subscribers on YouTube and over 1.2 million on the social media app.

Influencer's Comments

The online figure gave comments to a local publication this week following the event spread rapidly on digital platforms, saying he regretted giving "the biking community" a negative image.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. That was among the safest gatherings I’ve ever seen," he said. "I am a visitor here, so I’m going to come here respecting the laws and norms of the city. When I decided to do a meet and greet it did not involve a ride-out, it was just to say hi under the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, it was my fault we found ourselves on the bridge and I had two choices: either the group completes the entirety of the bridge and comes back, which is a crime. Or we turn around, essentially, before entering the bridge. I chose at the time to go back."

National Debate on E-Bike Regulation

The spate of e-bikes on roads nationwide has prompted increasing demands for stricter rules. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, recently said that illegal ebikes were a "complete hazard on the road."

"Young people have engaged in reckless acts on bikes since the invention of the penny-farthing [but] the harm that are presenting at our hospital emergency departments are absolutely devastating," the minister stated. "We must make sure we stop these things entering the country [and] officers are granted the powers to crack down, to confiscate them, to crush them, to destroy them."

NSW reported over two hundred injuries associated with electric bikes in the previous year. But, in the first seven months of the following year, that number surged to 233 injuries plus four fatalities.