A 52-year-old woman riding an e-bike in Ocean Beach was seriously injured Friday evening after a driver making a U-turn struck her in a marked bike lane, and police say alcohol was a factor in the crash. The man behind the wheel, a 35-year-old driver, was arrested on suspicion of DUI as investigators continued piecing together what happened along West Point Loma Boulevard.
According to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News, the woman was riding eastbound in the bike lane near 4700 West Point Loma Blvd. around 7:11 p.m. when the man, driving a Chrysler minivan in the same direction on the same street, turned left to complete a U-turn. The station reports that the vehicle hit the e-bike rider in the eastbound lane as the turn was underway, leaving her with multiple fractures to her face.
San Diego police determined that alcohol was a factor in the collision and arrested the driver for DUI, the station's report states. The San Diego Police Department's investigation remains ongoing, and no further details on the driver's blood-alcohol level or formal charges have been released.
A Legal Backdrop for the DUI Allegation
California's DUI statute, Vehicle Code section 23153, includes a rebuttable presumption that a driver had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or higher at the time of driving if that same concentration shows up in a chemical test afterward, per California Legislative Information. Separately, the state's rules for turning movements on a highway, outlined in Vehicle Code section 22100, require drivers intending to turn to follow specific procedures unless another section applies.
Part of a Citywide Surge in E-Bike Crashes
The Ocean Beach crash lands amid what local outlets describe as a dramatic rise in e-bike collisions across San Diego. Newly released police data show crashes have nearly quadrupled over five years, according to NBC San Diego, with reported crashes climbing from at least 23 in 2021 to at least 84 in 2025, citing data from Axios San Diego. The station's report also notes that e-bike injuries are increasing and becoming more serious, not just more frequent.
That trend shows up in county trauma data as well. San Diego County trauma centers logged 294 e-bike injuries in 2024, a 54% jump from the 191 reported the year before, per inewsource. The outlet also cites a statewide study finding e-bike crashes grew to 961 in 2024, up from just one in 2017, and reports that Oceanside alone logged roughly 800 e-bike-related calls for service in 2025, compared with 69 four years earlier.
Other Communities Reporting Similar Collisions
Smaller jurisdictions are seeing the same pattern. Chula Vista's Fire Department responded to 16 e-bike collisions during fiscal year 2025, nine of which involved a motor vehicle, the inewsource report notes. San Marcos, meanwhile, logged 80 e-bike collisions between January 2023 and August 2025, according to the same account.
San Diego has had other serious e-bike crashes in recent memory. A 24-year-old man riding an e-bike was seriously injured after being struck by an SUV in the University City neighborhood, FOX 5 San Diego reported, with the collision happening shortly before 1 p.m. at the intersection of La Jolla Village Drive and Genesee Avenue. That rider suffered a skull fracture and internal cranial hemorrhage after being knocked unconscious, though police said alcohol was not believed to be a factor in that crash — a contrast to what investigators determined in the Ocean Beach case.
San Diego police have not released additional information about the Ocean Beach driver's identity, the woman's condition, or whether further charges are expected as the investigation continues.
