Doctors at Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital say they are treating a sharp rise in children seriously hurt while riding e-bikes and e-scooters, with more than 120 kids already admitted for those injuries so far in 2026 — closing in on the roughly 150 children treated for the same injuries during all of 2025. Pediatric trauma surgeon Dr. Don Plumley has a blunt word for what he is seeing in the emergency room: an epidemic.
“In the last three years, every year, the number of children injured is doubled and the severity of injuries seems to be getting worse,” Plumley said, according to WKMG ClickOrlando, which first reported the hospital's figures. He also told the station that the severity of the injuries themselves appears to be getting worse, not just the raw count of kids coming through the door. The injuries doctors are treating include head trauma, facial fractures, and large bone breaks, and the station reports that major trauma is often tied to high speeds and to riders not wearing helmets.
A Hospital Simulation Built Around Two Crashed Kids
The scale of the problem was serious enough that Orange and Osceola County Fire Rescue crews recently took part in a high-intensity pediatric trauma simulation, per the same account, built around different life-threatening emergencies. Two of the simulated scenarios involved children injured in separate e-bike and e-scooter crashes. Dr. Marc Levy said the first hour of pediatric trauma care requires rapid treatment of head injuries or bleeding, underscoring why first responders are training specifically for this kind of case.
First responders used the moment to repeat a simple set of asks for families: follow local e-bike and e-scooter rules, always wear a helmet, and ride safely. WKMG ClickOrlando's Amy Russo, who covers Central Florida including the Conway, Lee Vista, Azalea Park, and Hunters Creek areas, reported that some Central Florida school districts still allow students to ride e-bikes and scooters to campus even as hospitals sound the alarm.
Orange County Schools Just Tightened the Rules
That patchwork is already shifting. Orange County Public Schools, Central Florida's largest district with nearly 198,000 students expected across 208 campuses this year, voted in July to restrict e-bikes and e-scooters on campus, according to Orlando Shine. Elementary and middle schoolers will no longer be allowed to ride them to school at all, while high schoolers must now hold a valid driver's license or learner's permit plus a district decal to ride in.
Orange County Sheriff's deputies told local officials during regulatory discussions in May that they had observed teenagers operating micromobility devices at speeds exceeding 30 to 50 mph near high schools, often riding against traffic or weaving through active vehicle lanes, according to Orlando Weekly. County staff estimated roughly 11,800 students use micromobility devices to get to school. The city of Orlando is separately weighing ordinances that would ban e-bikes from sidewalks and cap speeds at 15 mph on multi-use paths, after Orlando Police logged 813 officer interactions with e-vehicles — including 46 injury crashes — since the start of the year, per the Tampa Bay Times. Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith said juvenile riders were found at fault in the majority of those local incidents.
Why There's No Single Statewide Rule
Part of why Orlando and its school district are left crafting their own rules is that Florida has no uniform statewide framework governing e-bike speeds or safety reporting. Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed Senate Bill 382 in June, a bipartisan measure that had passed both legislative chambers unanimously and would have capped e-bike speeds at 10 mph within 50 feet of pedestrians on shared paths while mandating statewide crash reporting, according to Ebike Oracle. DeSantis cited concerns that the bill's nonmoving traffic violation fines would lead to enhanced local police surveillance.
Under existing Florida law, e-bikes fall into a three-class framework allowing assisted speeds up to 20 or 28 mph without requiring a driver's license, registration, or insurance, and helmets are legally mandated only for riders under 16. Florida generally treats electric bicycles like traditional bicycles for traffic rights and duties unless a local ordinance says otherwise, per Velotric. That legal gap is exactly what cities and school boards across the state are now trying to fill on their own.
A Statewide and National Pattern
Orlando is not an outlier. In Jacksonville, pediatric e-bike and e-scooter trauma cases at Wolfson Children's Hospital surged 222% from 2023 to 2024, with doctors there treating 97 injured children in just the first half of 2026, according to Baptist Health — a trend Hoodline previously covered as regulators moved to respond. Nationally, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recorded 149,100 emergency department visits for micromobility injuries in 2024, part of 533 documented micromobility deaths between 2017 and 2024.
Federal regulators specifically recommend that children under 12 not operate any e-bike capable of exceeding 10 mph, and pediatric medical groups advise reserving faster e-vehicles for older teens, per Checkup Newsroom. A separate study from Children's Hospital of Orange County found that pediatric e-bike crashes produce high-energy orthopedic trauma, including complex patellar fractures, comparable to high-speed motor vehicle accidents rather than typical bicycle spills. The CPSC has also warned separately about fire risks tied to certain e-bike lithium-ion batteries following 31 reported fire and explosion incidents.
For now, the responsibility for keeping kids safe on e-bikes in Central Florida rests on a mix of new school rules, city proposals still under consideration, and the pleas of doctors and first responders who keep training for the next crash. Plumley and his colleagues at Arnold Palmer Hospital say the pattern they are watching — more children, more severe injuries, year after year — shows no sign of slowing on its own.
