Who Pays After a San Francisco E-Bike Accident?

Last week, dozens of people injured by e-bikes stood on the steps of New York's City Hall holding photos of their own hospitalized faces. They were there to demand registration, insurance, and real enforcement. I read the West Side Spirit's account twice, because I see versions of their stories in my office here in San Francisco.

I should say up front where I'm coming from. I represent injured people for a living. I also love my e-bike. It's a Class 1, pedal-assist-only, no-throttle bike, and I ride it mostly on dirt, not on crowded sidewalks or the Embarcadero. When the motor helps, it's because I'm pedaling. When I stop pedaling, it stops helping, and it cuts out at 20 mph.

So I'm not writing this to pile on e-bikes. I'm writing it because the word "e-bike" now covers everything from my trail bike to a 50-pound throttle machine doing 35 on a bike path designed for people to travel at no more than 15 miles per hour, and the people getting hurt deserve a system that can tell the difference and hold someone accountable.

What New York's Victims Are Saying

The New York rally's core complaint was simple: people are getting badly hurt, and nobody is answerable for it. Organizers from the Electric Vehicle Safety Alliance said official counts badly undercount injuries. By their tally, only 8 of 147 serious crashes they tracked had a police report. They pointed to emergency-room numbers instead, citing more than 600 cases at St. Barnabas and more than 300 at Bellevue.

The stories were familiar to anyone who does this work:

A runner hit in Hudson River Park, where e-bikes are supposedly banned, spent 20 days in the hospital and months in rehab.
A woman with a brain injury held up a photo of her bloodied skull and said she still lives with the effects.
Several victims said the rider simply left, and police treated it as nothing they could act on.

Their legislative ask is Priscilla's Law (Intro. 802-2026), which would require licensing and registration of e-bikes, e-scooters and similar devices. It is named for Priscilla Loke, a 69-year-old preschool teacher killed by a hit-and-run rider in Chinatown in 2023. An earlier version once had 31 Council co-sponsors but never got a vote, and it was left off the 23 bills heard last week.

The rally also took aim at bike-advocacy groups and app-delivery money, which is New York politics that I'll leave to New Yorkers. What matters here is the pattern: serious injuries, riders who flee, and no record, no insurance, and no one to hold responsible.

Not Every "E-bike" Is an E-bike

California law recognizes three classes of e-bike, and anything faster is not an e-bike at all. That distinction matters in court, and it should matter in the policy debate.

Type	How the motor works	Motor stops helping at	Who can ride
Class 1 (what I ride)	Pedal assist only, no throttle	20 mph	Anyone
Class 2	Throttle allowed	20 mph	Anyone (local pilots in Marin, San Diego, and San Mateo counties restrict kids)
Class 3	Pedal assist only	28 mph	16 and older, helmet required
E-moto, e-moped, "hacked" e-bike	Throttle, often well over 750 W	Often 30 to 50+ mph	Not a bicycle; a motor vehicle needing registration and a license

That last row is where a lot of the carnage is. A December 2025 Mineta Transportation Institute report found that many crashes blamed on "e-bikes" likely involve e-motorcycles and e-mopeds, and that crash records rarely identify the device. Supervisor Alan Wong put a face on it here in San Francisco, describing underage riders doing 40 mph through neighborhoods on devices that may be illegally modified.

For an injured person, the class is not trivia. A rider on an illegal device, or one who unlocked a speed limiter, has broken safety laws designed to protect you and them. That can be powerful evidence of negligence, and it can open doors to other responsible parties, like the seller who marketed an electric motorcycle as a bicycle.

San Francisco's Numbers and What Sacramento Just Did

We have our own version of New York's problem. Doctors at Zuckerberg San Francisco General, the city's only Level I trauma center, say e-bike and scooter injuries are now the second-leading cause of trauma in their department, about double five years ago. The hospital's trauma director told legislators this spring that of 102 recent e-bike patients, 56 needed admission and only 36 were documented wearing a helmet. And just as in New York, the official count runs low: a city study found 29% of hospitalized crash patients never showed up in police records.

California has responded with a steady stream of laws rather than one big registration mandate:

In effect since January 2026. Police can impound devices that don't qualify as e-bikes, and Class 3 bikes ridden by kids under 16. Selling Class 3 bikes to minors is banned, as are apps that hack speed limits. Batteries must be lab-certified, and e-bikes need a red rear reflector or light at all hours.
Signed by Gov. Newsom on Sept. 30, 2026. SB 1167 bars selling anything faster than the e-bike limits as an "e-bike" and treats it as a moped or motor-driven cycle needing registration and a license, starting Jan. 1, 2027. It also improves crash reporting by device type. AB 2346 sets a 10 mph sidewalk speed limit, lets local governments set speed limits on bike paths, and will require speedometers on new Class 2 bikes from 2029. AB 2595 lets San Mateo County cities bar kids under 12 from Class 1 and 2 bikes.
Not passed. California still has no general registration or insurance requirement for legal e-bikes. Proposals in that direction, like AB 1942, died this session.

In short, California is betting on separating real e-bikes from e-motos and enforcing the rules on the books. I think that's the right bet. But it does little for the pedestrian already lying in a crosswalk.

Person standing with an electric bicycle and helmet.

The Accountability Gap: Who Actually Pays?

When a car hits you, there is almost always an insurance policy somewhere. When an e-bike hits you, there often isn't. That is the real reason the New York victims are shouting about registration and insurance.

Here is where I look when a client is hit by an e-bike rider:

The rider's homeowners or renters policy. Sometimes it covers the rider's liability. But many standard policies exclude "self-propelled" vehicles away from home, and insurers do invoke that exclusion against e-bikes.
A dedicated e-bike policy. Responsible riders buy them. Most riders don't, and California doesn't require it.
An employer or delivery platform. If the rider was working, the business may share responsibility. These claims are fact-heavy and often fought hard.
A rental or bikeshare company. Shared e-bikes usually come with some corporate coverage, though terms vary.
The seller or manufacturer. If the "e-bike" was really an e-moto, or was sold with an easy speed unlock, product liability may be on the table.
Your own policies. Your health insurance pays first for treatment. Your auto policy's uninsured motorist coverage generally applies only to motor vehicles. A legal e-bike usually doesn't qualify, but an illegal e-moto may qualify as a motorized vehicle, so the class of the device matters again.

And then there's the rider who leaves. A hit-and-run by an unregistered, unplated e-bike is, practically speaking, often a dead end. No plate to trace, no policy to claim against, and frequently no police report. That's the heart of the accountability gap, and it is why preserving evidence in the first hour matters so much.

If You're Hit by an E-bike in San Francisco

The first hour decides whether there's a case at all. If you are able, or someone is with you who can help:

Call 911 and ask for a police report. Insist on it, even if the rider has gone. A report is the first thing every insurer asks for, and New York's experience shows how often it's skipped.
Photograph the rider and the bike. Get the face, clothing, any delivery bag or app logo, and the bike itself. Does it have pedals? A throttle? A motorcycle-style seat? That can decide which laws and policies apply.
Get witnesses' names and numbers. Bystanders leave fast.
Note every camera. Storefronts, buses, Muni stops, doorbells, and cars with dash cams. Much of that footage is overwritten within days, so an attorney's preservation letter has to go out quickly.
Get medical care the same day. Head and brain injuries often look minor at first. ER records are also the injury evidence that police data misses.
Don't give a recorded statement to any insurer before you understand your rights.

Keep the deadlines in mind. In California, a personal injury lawsuit generally must be filed within two years. If a city or public agency may share the blame, such as a broken sidewalk, poor signage, or a city-owned vehicle, a government claim is usually due within six months. California also uses pure comparative fault, so you can recover even if you were partly at fault, reduced by your share.

A Rider's View from the Plaintiff's Table

I'll keep riding my Class 1 on the trails, and I hope more people discover how good that feels. But loving e-bikes doesn't mean excusing the riders who blow through crosswalks at 30 mph and keep going. Those riders give the rest of us a bad name, and they leave real people with broken bones, brain injuries, and no one to answer for it.

The fix isn't banning bicycles or prohibiting e-bikes. It's what California is starting to do: call an e-moto a motor vehicle, enforce the speed and age rules, count injuries accurately, and close the insurance gap so victims aren't left holding the bill. Until that gap closes, the civil courts are often the only accountability an injured pedestrian gets.

At Choulos, Choulos & Wyle, we represent people seriously injured in San Francisco e-bike accidents and other bicycle and pedestrian crashes. As both an injury lawyer and an e-bike rider, I understand how much the type of bike, its speed, available insurance, and what happened in the moments before a crash can matter when determining who may be responsible.

If you or someone you love has been injured by an e-bike or e-moto, you don't have to figure out those questions on your own. Contact Choulos, Choulos & Wyle for a free, confidential consultation about your situation and any applicable deadlines. You can reach me directly by email at cwyle@ccwlawyers.com or by phone at (415) 432-7290. We represent people with serious injuries and wrongful death claims throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area.

This post is general information, not legal advice, and reading it doesn't create an attorney-client relationship. Every case turns on its own facts.

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