The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has revealed a 13-fold rise in e-bike injuries since 2015, with pensioners making up 40% of the claims.
ACC dealt with 704 active e-bike injury claims by the end of last year, of which 307 involved customers 65 or older – confirming that injuries from e-bikes had risen 13-fold from 2015 when there were only 53 active claims.
Doug Rennie, co-owner of the Bike Shed in Whanganui, said e-bikes can be challenging and could result in death.
“[There are] different controls, and there are different skills required, and they’re a heavier item that sort of thing,” Rennie told RNZ. “There are accidents that happen, and a lot of it is probably not being aware of the machine they’re riding and also maybe people riding above their ability.”
Patrick Morgan, spokesperson for Cycling Action Network, said e-bike sales must be taken into account when considering the number of injuries.
“Over the past six years, e-bike sales have doubled year on year from 3,000 a few years ago to more than 50,000 a year. So e-bikes are popular, and they’re here to stay, but we need to learn to manage the risks as well as enjoy the benefits,” he said.
“We know that nothing in life is without risk and the same would apply to riding a bicycle, but we also know that cycling carries a much lower risk than other everyday activities like skiing or playing rugby so overall cycling has huge health benefits and I encourage everyone to give it a go.”
