Police back e-bike crackdown after two teenagers die
Callum Godde and Robyn Wuth |
An electric bike crackdown has been backed by police after two teenagers riding the powered vehicle at night were killed in a horrific collision.
A 16-year-old boy and his 15-year-old female passenger died after a motorcycle struck their e-bike in Greenbank, south of Brisbane, police said.
It is believed the Harley Davidson was overtaking a vehicle before it collided head-on with the e-bike travelling in the opposite direction on Thursday night.
The teenagers were declared dead at the scene, while the motorbike rider was taken to Princess Alexandra Hospital in a serious but stable condition.
The fatal crash comes after a Queensland parliamentary inquiry recommended a ban on children under 16 riding compliant e-bikes and e-scooters.
The forensic crash unit is investigating but police on Friday confirmed the e-bike did not have a headlight on.
“We want to understand, firstly, how did this happen? Two young lives have been lost,” Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler told reporters on Friday.
“It’s quite a dark stretch of road … so the visibility will certainly be part of the investigation.”
The crash marked Queensland’s third e-bike fatality of 2026 and occurred barely a week after a report into the safety of e-mobility devices was handed down recommending new restrictions in the state.
Under proposed rules, riders would be limited to a maximum of 10km/h on footpaths and have to hold at least a learner’s licence, with the exception of wheelchair and other accessibility device users.
Any device with a top speed above 25km/h would be defined as a motorbike, moped or other appropriate classification.
They could only be ridden on roads, and would have to be registered and covered by compulsory third-party insurance.
Police on Friday backed the changes after the Greenbank tragedy.
“The two lives that were lost last night hit particularly hard for everybody,” Supt Wheeler said.
“I’m a parent and a grandparent, and to see those young lives end in the way they end is just tragic.
“Anything that can be done to improve community safety, absolutely, we support it 100 per cent.”
The report noted Queensland Health recorded more than 6300 e-mobility related emergency department presentations in the year to March 2025 – a figure thought to underestimate the true number of incidents.
More than 200 cases involved major trauma and more than 60 required intensive care, mainly for head and facial injuries, it said.
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie claimed the government would respond to the report “sooner rather than later”, saying there had been too many e-bike related deaths in recent years.
“We’re now considering that, but we will be taking tough action to try and prevent loss of life on e-scooters and e-mobility devices,” he told reporters on Friday.
“A family are going through grief today with the loss of life and it’s just tragic circumstances.”
A University of Melbourne study found one in three Australian e-scooter deaths reported in the media from the start of 2020 to mid-2025 were children.
AAP