More e-bikes on Colorado’s roads means more people getting around in a cleaner, more affordable way. It also means more injuries. That’s not a reason to avoid e-bikes, but it is a reason to understand what makes them different from traditional bicycles when things go wrong.
The numbers are hard to ignore. Between 2019 and 2023, e-bike incidents in California’s crash database increased more than 18-fold, rising from 1.5% to nearly 5% of all bicycle-related accidents. Nationally, e-bike riders with head trauma increased by a reported 49-fold over a five-year period. Here in Denver, 264 crashes involving bicycles and e-bikes were recorded in 2024, and that count is expected to rise as ridership continues to grow.
The injuries that follow these crashes are often more severe than people expect. Here’s why.
A standard adult bicycle typically weighs somewhere between 17 and 30 pounds. An e-bike, once you account for the motor, battery, and reinforced frame needed to support them, generally weighs between 45 and 70 pounds. Some cargo or utility e-bikes are heavier still.
That difference matters enormously in a crash. More mass means more force transferred on impact, whether the impact is with a car, another cyclist, a pedestrian, or the ground itself. It also makes the bike harder to control in the first place. Braking distances are longer. Recovering from a wobble or an unexpected obstacle is more difficult. Dismounting in an emergency takes more effort and time.
For older riders in particular, the weight of an e-bike has contributed to a disproportionate number of fall-related injuries, many of which happen not during riding but during mounting, dismounting, or maneuvering at low speed.
The speed advantage is, of course, one of the main reasons people choose e-bikes. Getting up a hill without breaking a sweat, keeping pace with traffic, cutting your commute in half: these are real benefits. But speed is also a significant factor in injury severity.
A Class 3 e-bike can reach 28 mph with motor assistance. That may not sound like much compared to car speeds, but consider that most traditional cyclists average 10 to 15 mph. Nearly doubling that speed dramatically increases the energy involved in a collision. Reaction time shrinks. Stopping distances grow. And the human body, whether the rider or a pedestrian or another cyclist, absorbs more force on impact.
Research comparing e-bike injuries to those from conventional bicycles has found that e-bike injuries are consistently more severe. One widely cited analysis found that e-bike incidents had a statistically higher injury severity score than conventional bicycle crashes. Another study found that e-bike accidents more closely resembled motorcycle accidents than bicycle accidents in terms of injury patterns, particularly when it came to collision type and trauma severity.
“I’ve been handling motorcycle cases for a long time. When e-bike cases started coming in, the injuries looked familiar. The bike may not have an engine in the traditional sense, but at 28 miles an hour on a 60-pound frame, the physics don’t care what you call it.” – Scott O’Sullivan
The injuries we see in e-bike cases at our firm tend to be more serious than the average bicycle case. Traumatic brain injuries are common, and they occur even when riders are wearing helmets, partly because the force of impact at e-bike speeds can exceed what a standard bicycle helmet was designed to absorb. Orthopedic injuries including wrist, arm, collarbone, and hip fractures are frequent. Internal injuries show up at higher rates in e-bike crashes than in traditional bicycle crashes, and they are particularly dangerous because they may not be apparent in the immediate aftermath of an accident.
Spinal injuries, road rash requiring hospitalization, and soft tissue damage that creates long-term complications are all part of the picture we see regularly.
When an e-bike rider is struck by a motor vehicle, the consequences are often devastating. The speed and weight advantages that make e-bikes attractive also mean that riders reach intersections and traffic situations faster than drivers expect, and with less margin for error.
Drivers who are accustomed to yielding to traditional cyclists sometimes misjudge the speed of an approaching e-bike. Left-turn crashes, right-hook crashes at intersections, and dooring incidents involving parked cars are all more dangerous when the cyclist is moving at 20 to 28 mph rather than 12.
The data backs this up. One national study found that motor vehicle involvement was present in more than 35% of e-bike injuries, a higher proportion than for other micromobility devices. These aren’t single-bike falls in a parking lot. A significant share of serious e-bike injuries happen because a driver didn’t account for the speed of an electric bike.
One more factor worth understanding: e-bikes attract riders who might not otherwise be on a bicycle. Older adults who haven’t ridden in years, newer riders unfamiliar with traffic dynamics, commuters who aren’t cyclists by background, and children, all find e-bikes accessible and appealing in ways that traditional bicycles are not.
That’s genuinely positive from a transportation and public health standpoint. But it also means that a meaningful number of people on e-bikes are less experienced with road conditions, traffic patterns, and the handling characteristics of the bike they’re riding. Inexperience combined with higher speed and heavier weight creates a real vulnerability.
None of this is meant to discourage anyone from riding. E-bikes are legitimate, enjoyable, and useful. But understanding the risk profile of these bikes matters, both for riders and for anyone who has been hurt in an e-bike accident.
If you were injured in an e-bike crash, either as a rider or as someone hit by one, the severity of those injuries is likely to be greater than the other party’s insurer will initially acknowledge. Insurance companies often treat these cases like ordinary bicycle accidents. They are frequently not. The speed, the weight, the mechanics of the crash, and the resulting injuries all deserve full and proper documentation. That is work we do every day.
Scott O’Sullivan has been representing injured Coloradans from his Denver office for over 25 years. If you have questions about an e-bike accident, call or text The O’Sullivan Law Firm at (303) 388-5304 for a free consultation. It’s free, and you’ll speak directly with an attorney.
