E-Bike and Electric Scooter Accident Claims

Riders Hurt on E-Bikes and Scooters Often Have More Than One Claim

If a car hit you while you were riding an e-bike or an electric scooter, you have an injury claim against the driver, the same as any cyclist.

An e-bike or scooter crash can also bring in a second party: the rental company that kept the scooter, the manufacturer that built the bike, or the city that maintained the road.

The insurance is where these claims get complicated, because auto and homeowners policies often leave motorized two-wheelers out.

A rental app's arbitration clause and release change where and how a claim is heard, and whether the release holds depends on your state.

Keep the e-bike or scooter, its battery, and the app's ride records as they are, because the machine and the ride data are the evidence.

Lawsuit Legal reviews e-bike and scooter injury claims for free, in English or Spanish, and charges no fee unless we recover.

Call (888) 713-6653 to talk through what happened.

How the Three E-Bike Classes and the 750-Watt Federal Line Sort a Claim

Federal law defines a low-speed electric bicycle as a two- or three-wheeled vehicle with fully operable pedals, an electric motor under 750 watts, and a top speed under 20 miles per hour on motor power alone. That definition makes the bike a consumer product under the Consumer Product Safety Commission's bicycle rules, and it leaves traffic rules to the states.^[1]

Most states sort e-bikes into three classes:

• Class 1. Pedal-assist only, with a motor that stops helping at 20 miles per hour.
• Class 2. A throttle that can move the bike without pedaling, also limited to 20 miles per hour.
• Class 3. Pedal-assist up to 28 miles per hour.

PeopleForBikes counted 39 states using that system in 2022, and New Jersey moved away from it in 2026. Inside the class rules, an e-bike rider generally has a cyclist's rights and duties, and the bike needs no registration or insurance. A machine with a bigger motor or a higher top speed can fall outside the class system and count as a moped or a motor vehicle, which can bring registration, licensing, and insurance requirements, and an insurer can raise any one that was missing in the fault argument.

Electric scooters have their own definitions in many state codes, usually with a speed limit and rules about sidewalks and bike lanes. Arizona, for one, gives e-bike and scooter riders a cyclist's rights by statute, as our page on e-bike and scooter crashes in Arizona explains. Gas mopeds and motor scooters that need a license and plates are motor vehicles, and those crashes run like the claims our motorcycle injury attorneys handle.

Find out the bike's class and motor rating early, from the label on the frame or the receipt, because the insurer will look for it too.

Which Insurance Covers an E-Bike or Scooter Rider Hit by a Car?

The at-fault driver's liability insurance covers an e-bike or scooter rider first, the same way it covers a cyclist. The harder question is what stands behind it when the driver's limits run out, and the answer sits in the definitions section of each policy.

Your Own Auto Policy

Whether your own uninsured motorist coverage follows you onto an e-bike depends on the policy's wording and your state's law. Some policies define an insured person broadly enough to reach you on any vehicle; others exclude vehicles you own that the policy does not list, and an insurer may argue an e-bike is one of them. Read those definitions before you give your own insurer a statement.

PIP and the Pedestrian Question

In no-fault states, a scooter rider's personal injury protection can turn on whether the state counts the rider as a pedestrian. In Goyco v. Progressive (2024), the New Jersey Supreme Court held that a person riding a low-speed electric scooter is not a pedestrian under the state's no-fault law, so the rider could not collect pedestrian PIP benefits.^[2] Other states read their own statutes, and the answer can differ for an e-bike and a scooter in the same state.

Homeowners, Renters, and E-Bike Policies

Standard homeowners policies exclude self-propelled vehicles, and the standard personal auto policy is written around vehicles with four wheels, so neither one reliably covers a rider. Some insurers now sell standalone e-bike policies, and a rider who bought one should read its medical and liability sections first. Health insurance pays treatment in the meantime, and the plan's claim for reimbursement comes out of the settlement later.

If You Own a Car

Start with your own auto policy. Its uninsured and underinsured motorist section, and medical payments coverage if you carry it, may apply to you on the e-bike, and the definitions of an insured person and a motor vehicle decide whether they do. The at-fault driver's liability policy still pays first.

 

If No One in Your Household Owns a Car

Look at the policies of relatives you live with, since many auto policies cover resident relatives. With no household policy at all, the driver's liability insurance, your health insurance, and any e-bike policy you bought are the sources, and finding every policy the driver and the driver's employer carry becomes the work.

 

Delivery riders face a second set of questions about the app company and workers' compensation. In New York those questions have their own answers, covered on our page about delivery workers hurt on e-bikes in New York City.

Rental Scooter and Bike-Share Injuries Under the Lime and Bird User Agreements

A rider hurt on a rental scooter or bike-share bike agreed to a user agreement in the app, and that agreement shapes the claim. Lime's U.S. user agreement, updated in July 2025, requires individual arbitration and contains a release that reaches claims caused "solely or in part by the negligence" of Lime.^[3] Bird's terms, updated in October 2024, also require arbitration, and Bird places its release in the rental agreements it uses city by city.

An arbitration clause sends the claim to a private arbitrator instead of a jury, and the claim for your injuries goes with it.

People who call us after a rental scooter crash often believe they signed the claim away when they tapped accept. The agreement changed the forum. Whether it changed anything else is a question of state law, and we verify it before anyone gives up.

The rental company's own conduct can be a claim of its own. A scooter with worn brakes, a sticking throttle, or a failed light was the company's to inspect and fix, and its service records and the problem reports riders filed in the app are evidence of what it knew.

Rental companies can also owe a duty to people who never rode the scooter. In Hacala v. Bird Rides (2023), a California appeals court held, 2-1, that Bird had a duty to use ordinary care to locate and move a scooter that posed an unreasonable risk of harm; the injured person there was a pedestrian who tripped over a parked scooter.^[4] How that ruling applies in California is covered on our page about California pedestrian and cyclist injury claims.

Screenshot the ride history and the scooter's vehicle number before you close the app, because the company holds every other record of the ride.

Brake, Throttle, Frame, and Battery Failures on the E-Bike Itself

When an e-bike or scooter fails on its own, the claim is a product liability claim against the companies that made and sold it. A bike can be defective in its design, in the way one unit was built, or in the warnings that came with it, and the manufacturer, the importer, and the retailer can each be responsible. Many e-bikes sold in the U.S. are imported, which makes the importer and the seller important defendants when the maker is overseas.

Safety standards exist for the electrical systems: UL 2849 for e-bikes, UL 2272 for scooters and hoverboards, and UL 2271 for their batteries. The Consumer Product Safety Commission proposed mandatory battery standards built on them in June 2026, and that rule is not final. CPSC links 45 deaths from 2017 to 2024 to fires from micromobility lithium-ion batteries.^[5]

A fire that starts while a battery charges at home brings in the battery maker and sometimes a landlord, and our page on e-bike battery fire injuries in New York covers those claims. A recall on your model is worth finding, because it can show the company knew about the problem before your crash.

Keep the bike, the battery, and the charger as they were after the crash, and do not let a shop repair them or a seller take them back before an engineer has examined them. Our defective product attorneys handle the claims that follow.

E-Bike and Scooter Crashes Caused by Potholes, Sidewalks, and Other Riders

Some e-bike and scooter crashes involve no car at all, and the claim runs against whoever controlled the hazard.

• A pothole or broken pavement. The city, county, or state that maintains the road can be responsible, usually after a written notice with a short deadline. The rules for claims against a government in each state set that deadline.
• A sidewalk, driveway, or construction hazard. The property owner or the contractor that created or ignored it can be responsible under premises liability rules.
• Another rider. A collision with another rider is a negligence claim against that rider, and whether any insurance covers it depends on that rider's policies.

These claims are harder than a car crash claim. The rider has to show the owner knew or should have known about the hazard, and a government defendant brings notice rules and immunities a driver does not. Photographs of the hazard taken before anyone repairs it, and its exact location, are the evidence that carries them.

Head Injuries at E-Bike Speeds, and Teens on Throttle Bikes

CPSC estimates 698,500 emergency department visits tied to e-scooters, e-bikes, and hoverboards from 2017 to 2024: 380,000 involving e-scooters, 163,300 hoverboards, and 155,200 e-bikes. It knows of 533 deaths over the same years, 310 of them on e-bikes and 206 on e-scooters, rising from 5 in 2017 to 135 in 2024.^[5]

An IIHS study of emergency room patients in Washington, D.C. found that injured e-scooter riders and bicyclists had injuries of mostly similar severity, with more concussions and skull fractures among the scooter riders.^[6] A rider who hits the pavement at motor speed can have a brain injury that does not show on the first scan, and the follow-up care is what documents it.

A teenager on a throttle e-bike can reach motor speeds without years of experience riding in traffic. Age limits for e-bikes vary by state, and a parent's claim for a child's injury has its own rules on medical bills and court approval of a settlement. Our page on brain injuries in children and teenagers explains why a young brain injury can take years to show its full effect.

How Much Is an E-Bike or Scooter Injury Claim Worth?

An e-bike or scooter claim is valued on the same factors as a bicycle crash claim against a driver: the medical care past and future, the income lost, the pain and permanence of the injury, and the share of fault the evidence supports. There is no reliable average, because the injuries range from a sprained wrist to a skull fracture.

The number of defendants changes the ceiling. A claim against a driver is usually limited by the driver's policy and your own underinsured motorist coverage, while a claim against a rental company or a manufacturer reaches that company's insurance and assets. Health plan and provider liens come out of the recovery, and negotiating them changes how much of it you keep.

Every state sets a filing deadline, most often two years from the injury, and a claim against a government can need written notice within months. Knowing which defendants are in the case early decides which of those clocks applies.