E-bikes will be fitted with number plates in a bid to crack down on dangerous cyclists.
One third of the 1,500-bike fleet of Forest bikes in Richmond, west London, will be fitted with five-digit ID codes in a bid to make it easier to identify riders.
The decision comes after nearly 39,000 incidents involving e-bikes were recorded by police forces in the past three years.
They include scores of pedestrians being smashed into – causing fatalities and life-changing injuries in many cases – as well as drug-trafficking, robberies, assaults and sexual offences.
Earlier this year, a woman alleged she had been thrown face-first into a brick wall by a Forest bike rider, leaving her with severe facial and dental injuries.
‘The bike was going full-pelt and I was hit with such brutal force and speed that there were no defensive injuries,’ Sandy Peters told the Daily Mail.
‘I didn’t have time to put out my hands or arms, so my face smashed straight into the wall.’
As it stands, Forest bikes are fitted with a five-digit number printed under the QR code that cyclists use to activate their ride.
However, under the new proposals the same code will be added to a number plate.
One third of the 1,500-bike fleet of Forest bikes in Richmond, west London , will be fitted with five-digit ID codes in a bid to make it easier to identify riders (file photo)
Sandy Peters was thrown face-first into a brick wall by an e-bike being ridden illegally on a pavement by a teenage boy last year
Ms Peters’s face was smashed into a wall and she received very serious and complex injuries
A spokesman for Forest said: ‘The way it works is that if there’s an incident and the number is shared with us, just as with the bike number, we can immediately identify the bike and who was riding it at the time, and take the required action faster.’
Around 500 number plates have already been installed on Forest bikes in Richmond upon Thames, The Telegraph has reported.
It is understood riders who repeatedly flout the rules will be banned from hiring a Forest bike again.
Over the past few years, there have been a string of high-profile crashes involving e-bikes, including the daughter of BBC broadcaster Nicky Campbell.
Opening up about the hit-and-run involving his daughter, Lilla, 26, Mr Campbell said it happened in Peckham, south London, while with her three sisters and that it had been ‘a long and emotional night’ after she was left ‘badly injured’.
In another case which shocked the nation, teenager Billy Stokoe was jailed for six years and nine months for killing 86-year-old grandmother Gloria Stephenson on a zebra crossing in Sunderland last year.
Stokoe had taken cannabis and was using a mobile phone when he ploughed into her.
Devon & Cornwall and Dorset Police recorded one of the highest tallies of incidents, collectively recording more than 9,600 over three years.
Gloria Stephenson (pictured) was killed on a zebra crossing by e-bike rider Billy Stokoe
This was the moment teenage e-bike rider Billy Stokoe mowed down and killed grandmother Gloria Stephenson on a zebra crossing in an incident that shocked the nation
E-bikes were involved in nearly a thousand Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs). More than 700 were linked to ‘violence against the person’ incidents, 60 to drugs offences, 40 to ‘possession of weapons’ crimes and 84 to sexual offences.
The force was unable to identify a suspect in more than a third (3,396) of cases.
West Yorkshire Police recorded one of the biggest increases in incidents in percentage terms, jumping from 1,798 in 2023 to 4,001 last year.
This was a 122 per cent increase. In total, the force recorded 8,647 incidents over the three-year period.
There were nearly 500 RTCs and more than 5,700 anti-social behaviour and crime-related incidents, including 250 robberies, 156 arson and criminal damage incidents and 19 drug offences. The force said it was unable to identify a suspect in 1,655 cases.
The Daily Mail has contacted Forest for further comment.
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