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New South Wales police have issued a fine against an American social media personality and handed out two driving violation citations for reported negligent driving following a large group of e-bike riders gathered on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during peak-hour traffic on a weekday.

The Event: A Prohibited Ride

A group of approximately 40 individuals operating electric bikes and motorbikes travelled along the primary roadway of the bridge, an area where bicycle riding is banned. The assembly then turned around and traveled through the city’s CBD and Haymarket.

"There was potential for serious injury or fatalities," stated a senior police official the officer on Wednesday.

Police said they did not chase right away the group due to concerns for public safety but rather found the group at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the Botanic Gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Content Creator

Later in the week, authorities stated they had served the American online personality who goes by the influencer, twenty-six, with two traffic infringement notices for careless operation (not involving death or prior injury), with a fine of over five hundred dollars and three demerit points each, in relation to the bridge incident. They added that the investigation is ongoing.

The influencer reportedly has more than 3.4 million subscribers on one platform and over 1.2 million on the social media app.

Influencer's Comments

The online figure gave comments to a local publication recently following the event gained traction on digital platforms, saying he was sorry for giving "bike life" a negative image.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was one of the safest gatherings I’ve ever seen," he said. "I’m coming here as a guest, so I’m going to come here respecting the rules and standards of Sydney. When I decided to do a meet and greet it did not involve a group ride, it was just to greet people under the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, I am to blame we ended up on the bridge and I had a decision to make: whether the group completes the entirety of the bridge and turns around, which is a crime. Or we reverse, basically, before entering the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to turn around."

National Debate on E-Bike Regulation

The increase of e-bikes on streets across the country has prompted growing calls for stricter rules. The federal health minister, the minister, commented that non-compliant electric bikes were a "total menace on the road."

"Young people have engaged in reckless acts on bikes since the invention of the early bicycle [but] the injuries that are presenting at our ERs are absolutely devastating," the minister stated. "We’ve got to ensure we prevent these things coming into the country [and] officers are granted the powers to take strong action, to take them away, to destroy them, to dispose of them."

The state reported over two hundred injuries associated with ebikes in 2024. But, in the initial half of the following year, that figure jumped to 233 injuries plus four fatalities.