Christina Bragg had only owned her e-bike for a couple of weeks when she took it for a ride a few blocks from her Lincoln Park home on the Fourth of July. She never came back. The 36-year-old mother of five hit a patch of gravel, lost control, and crashed into a curb — an accident that would leave her brain dead within days and devastate a family that is now begging others to take e-bike safety seriously.
A Short Ride Turns Fatal
According to WDIV ClickOnDetroit, Bragg's sister, Emily Thomas, said Christina “went for a ride and did not come back.” Thomas told the station that after the crash, Christina was found on the grass, bleeding and unconscious. Doctors later told the family that she did not feel pain in her final moments, according to Thomas.
Doctors pronounced Bragg brain dead and told her family there was no possibility she would wake up, per the station's report. The family has said the crash site is difficult to avoid because it sits so close to their home in Lincoln Park, a Wayne County city of just under 39,300 residents packed into 5.8 square miles, making it the second most densely populated municipality in Michigan, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
A Family's Final Gift
Bragg was an organ donor, and her heart, liver, kidneys and pancreas went on to save more than three lives, the same account notes. Her decision mirrors a broader pattern across the state: Gift of Life Michigan reported that 478 organ donors across the state provided 1,206 transplanted organs in 2025, with more than 4.7 million Michigan residents currently enrolled in the state donor registry.
An obituary published on Legacy.com says Bragg, born Christina Marie Bragg (Trevino) in Wyandotte, is survived by her husband of 15 years, Gerald Bragg, her mother, and her five children. The family reportedly reached out to Local 4's Karen Drew after seeing her previous reporting on e-bike safety, which included interviews with doctors from six local health systems.
Family Calls For Helmets, Licensing And Bans
Thomas said she believes children should not ride e-bikes at all, and that riders should be required to wear helmets and knee pads. She went further, saying riders should need a license to operate one, and she has called for e-bikes to be banned outright.
Under current Michigan law, however, those protections do not extend to adult riders. Michigan Vehicle Code section MCL 257.662a makes bicycle helmets mandatory only for riders under 18 operating Class 3 e-bikes capable of motor-assisted speeds up to 28 mph, leaving adult riders on any e-bike class exempt from state helmet requirements, according to the Michigan Legislature.
Local E-Bike Injuries Raise Concern
Bragg's death comes amid rising local e-bike injuries among children. State police have since updated statewide crash reporting protocols to track e-bike collisions separately from traditional pedal bicycles, citing concerns over high-speed conversion kits that can push some bikes to 40 mph.
Local hospitals have been sounding the alarm for months. Corewell Health's William Beaumont University Hospital emergency department in Royal Oak treated 22 e-bike injury cases between January and mid-June 2026, with 16 of those patients being children. Dr. Kelly Levasseur, medical director of pediatric emergency at Children's Hospital of Michigan, said during a Metro Detroit health panel earlier this month that emergency room staff treat at least one child injured in an e-bike or e-scooter crash on virtually every shift.
Neighboring Cities Have Already Acted
Some nearby Wayne County communities have moved to restrict e-bikes on their own. In June, the Dearborn Heights city council voted unanimously to ban e-bikes on all city-owned property, citing a summer surge in child collisions that resulted in broken limbs and collarbones. Hoodline previously reported that Fenton banned e-bikes on downtown sidewalks after riders there were clocked at similarly dangerous speeds.
The risks extend well beyond Michigan. National Consumer Product Safety Commission injury data shows emergency room visits for e-bike accidents reached an estimated 59,200 in 2024, with motor vehicle collisions and loss-of-control crashes into fixed obstacles listed among the primary fatality factors. For Bragg's family, those statistics are no longer abstract — they are the reason Thomas is speaking publicly, hoping that what happened on a quiet Lincoln Park street a few blocks from home does not happen to anyone else.
