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NSW police have levied a penalty against an American social media personality and served two traffic infringement notices for reported negligent driving after a large group of electric bicycle users gathered on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during peak-hour traffic on Tuesday.

The Event: An Illegal Gathering

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

"This had a risk of serious injury or fatalities," stated NSW police assistant commissioner David Driver on Wednesday.

Police said they did not chase right away the riders due to concerns for public safety but rather found the group at a scenic Sydney lookout near the city gardens, at which point they broke up.

Fines Imposed for Influencer

Later in the week, police stated they had served the US social media influencer known as the influencer, twenty-six, with two violation tickets for negligent driving (with no death or previous bodily harm), with a fine of over five hundred dollars and penalty points per notice, connected to the bridge incident. Officials noted that inquiries were continuing.

The influencer reportedly has over 3.4 million followers on YouTube and over 1.2 million on the social media app.

Creator's Response

The content creator gave comments to a local publication recently following the event gained traction on news sites and social media, saying he regretted giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. That was among the safest gatherings I have witnessed," he told the publication. "I’m coming here as a guest, so I’m going to come here respecting the laws and norms of Sydney. When I decided to do a public meeting it did not involve a group ride, it was just to say hi under the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, it was my fault we ended up on the bridge and I had two choices: whether the group completes the entirety of the bridge and comes back, an illegal act. Or we turn around, basically, before entering the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to go back."

Broader Context on E-Bike Regulation

The increase of e-bikes on roads nationwide has prompted increasing demands for regulation. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, commented that non-compliant electric bikes were a "total menace on the road."

"Young people have engaged in stupid things on bikes since the invention of the early bicycle [but] the harm that are presenting at our ERs are truly severe," he said. "We’ve got to ensure we stop these things coming into the country [and] officers are granted the powers to crack down, to take them away, to crush them, to destroy them."

NSW recorded over two hundred injuries associated with electric bikes in 2024. But, in the first seven months of the following year, that number jumped to 233 injuries plus four fatalities.