A 53-year-old e-bike rider was hospitalized with a collapsed lung, multiple broken ribs and a chest wall injury requiring surgery after colliding with a Ford F-650 truck on Miramar Road in Sorrento Valley on Wednesday. Police say the rider ended up beneath the truck's rear axle after the crash, which happened as the vehicle turned into a business driveway.
According to FOX 5 San Diego and KUSI News, the e-bike rider had been traveling westbound on Miramar Road in the bike lane when the collision occurred, per San Diego police. The driver of the Ford F-650 had been moving parallel to the e-bike in the No. 2 lane before turning right into a driveway, crossing directly into the cyclist's path, the station reported, citing SDPD.
The impact sent the e-bike rider under the truck and beneath its rear axle, according to the same report. He was transported to a local hospital, where he underwent surgery for the chest wall injury alongside treatment for the collapsed lung and rib fractures.
A Familiar Pattern on San Diego Streets
This is not the only recent e-bike crash involving a turning vehicle in the area. In a separate incident near Balboa Avenue, a 23-year-old man suffered serious injuries when his e-bike crashed into a Ford truck, with SDPD saying the bicyclist turned left directly in front of an eastbound Ford Lightning, the station's report noted.
Another case in the Miramar area involved a 24-year-old man whose electric mountain bike collided with a vehicle after the driver made a right turn, according to 10News. In that crash, the station reported, police said the party responsible was unclear. None of these reports establish who was at fault in Wednesday's Miramar Road collision.
E-Bike Crashes Climbing Citywide and Statewide
The Sorrento Valley crash lands amid a broader rise in e-bike collisions across San Diego. City police data shows e-bike crashes climbed from at least 23 in 2021 to at least 84 in 2025, according to NBC 7 San Diego.
The increase mirrors a statewide trend documented by researchers at UC San Diego, who found California e-bike collisions rose from just two reported in 2018 to 1,506 in 2024, per UC San Diego Today. The study analyzed 4,035 e-bike collisions and 58,332 traditional bicycle collisions statewide between 2018 and 2024, finding that moderate-to-severe injuries were more common among e-bike riders than among people on traditional bicycles.
Neither the citywide crash data nor the UC San Diego study establishes what caused Wednesday's collision on Miramar Road. The cause remains tied to the specifics police described: a westbound rider in a marked bike lane and a truck turning across that lane into a driveway.
