NSW police have levied a penalty against an US-based online influencer and handed out two traffic infringement notices for reported reckless operation following a swarm of e-bike riders gathered on the famous Sydney landmark during the busy commute on Tuesday.
A gathering of around 40 individuals operating electric bikes and motorbikes travelled along the bridge’s main deck, an area where bicycle riding is banned. The assembly subsequently reversed direction and traveled through the city’s CBD and Haymarket.
"This had a risk of people to be injured and killed," stated NSW police assistant commissioner the officer on the following day.
Police said they did not immediately pursue the group due to concerns for public safety but rather found the group at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the city gardens, where they dispersed.
Later in the week, authorities stated they had served the American online personality known as Sur Ronster, twenty-six, with two traffic infringement notices for negligent driving (not involving death or prior injury), with a penalty of $562 and penalty points each, connected to the bridge incident. Officials noted that the investigation is ongoing.
The influencer reportedly has over 3.4m followers on YouTube and over 1.2m on the social media app.
The online figure spoke with a major newspaper this week following the event gained traction on news sites and social media, stating he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a negative image.
"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was among the safest gatherings I have witnessed," he told the publication. "I’m coming here as a guest, and I intend to abide by the laws and norms of Sydney. So when I decided to do a public meeting it was not meant to include a ride-out, it was just to say hi near the bridge."
"I did not know the area well, I am to blame we ended up on the bridge and I had two choices: whether the group rides the full length of the bridge and comes back, an illegal act. Or we turn around, essentially, before entering the bridge. I chose at the time to turn around."
The increase of e-bikes on roads nationwide has prompted growing calls for regulation. The federal health minister, the minister, recently said that non-compliant electric bikes were a "complete hazard on the road."
"Young people have engaged in reckless acts on bikes ever since the early bicycle [but] the harm that are coming into our hospital emergency departments are absolutely devastating," he said. "We must make sure we prevent these things entering the country [and] officers are granted the authority to take strong action, to take them away, to destroy them, to destroy them."
The state reported over two hundred injuries associated with electric bikes in the previous year. But, in the initial half of the following year, that number jumped to 233 injuries plus four deaths.
