Robin Herman | 00:00
Hello again, I’m Robin and I’m here with my husband Glenn Herman, personal injury attorney, and we’re going to answer some questions about uh bike riders’ rights. So the first question for today is, how does the 15 mile per hour speed limit affect a rider’s injury after a crash?
Glenn Herman | 00:21
So the 15 mile an hour speed limit, the way it will affect the rider’s claim, it depends. It might not affect the injury claim at all. It depends on the circumstances of the crash. So what we do is we look at how the crash happened, whether the speed of the e-bike played any role whatsoever in causing the crash. For instance, if the bike has a right-of-way, car goes through a red light, or a stop sign, the fault should still be fully assessed against the driver of the car, no matter how over the speed limit, the e-bike is gone. Even though an e-bike is going above 15 miles an hour at the time of a crash, there needs to be some connection between the increased speed and the factors that caused the crash.
Robin Herman | 01:08
Can you walk us through the differences between a Class 1, a Class 2, a Class 3 e-bike and why the class matters when you get injured?
Glenn Herman | 01:17
Okay. So in New York, we’ve classified electric bikes into three categories, and this is under New York Administrative Code, it’s Title 34, Chapter 4 Section 4.0, that’s where you’ll find this. Class 1, that’s a pedal assist bike where the motor cuts off at 20 miles an hour. Now, these can be ridden anywhere traditional bikes are permitted, including city streets, parks, bike lanes. Class 2, that’s a throttle-assist bike, and they can be powered by the motor alone, and that can go up to 20 miles an hour. These are allowed on city streets and bike lanes, and you’ve seen these, especially like with the delivery men, they’re not peddling. They just press the throttle and the bike goes, and then the class 3 is essentially the same as the class 2, except that they can reach speeds up to 25 miles an hour. Now, in the state of New York, you can go up to 25 mile an hour on these bikes. In New York City though, 15 is blanket speed restriction across all 3 classes. And regardless of the class of bike you’re on, your legal rights are the same. That’s not going to change.
Robin Herman | 02:33
Okay. People often mix up e-bikes and e-motos. Does it make a difference?
Glenn Herman | 02:40
You mean saying if you’ve been in a crash, does it matter? There’s a big difference now. If you’re riding an e-bike or an e-moto when you have a crash with a car, there’s a big big difference in how the law treats this. If you’re on any class of the e-bike, and that’s a bike with pedals, your legal rights are the same as any other type of crash is the same as if you’re a pedestrian hit by a car. If you’re on an e-moto or a moped, the law is treating that as if you’re on a motorcycle, and the big difference is if you need medical attention and treatment, It’s not covered by the New York no fault law, which covers injuries when you’re on your bicycle or you’re a pedestrian, and that is a big big big difference. The e-motos and the Moped’s mostly they don’t have pedals and that’s how you can tell the difference. A lot of people have come to us with this situation and their own health insurance has to pay for their treatment for those situations.
Robin Herman | 03:45
So New York now requires police to file a report for certain e-bike and e-moto claims to the DMV. Why would a rider want a report to be filed?
Glenn Herman | 03:55
That’s a good question. Why a rider would want to actually have a report filed? And what that is independent third party documentation that you had a crash. Before this law, which is made in actually 2024, as effective as of July of 2025. This e-bike and e-scooters accidents often lacked the kind of documentation that car crashes automatically got when the police showed up. You would take a statement from the driver, take a statement from the other driver, and both statements would be down written in file. Whereas bike accidents, a lot of times, they weren’t documented, so whatever the writer said, he’d have to prove later on. Correct, and witnesses sometimes are recorded in the report. If there are witnesses, the police are supposed to write down name and contact number of the witnesses. Now that the police are required to investigate and create a record, the biker isn’t relying on just their own version and information to move their case.
Robin Herman | 05:09
Next is, the city requires UL certified batteries after the lithium fires. If a defective battery hurts someone, who’s responsible?
Glenn Herman | 05:18
So this has been a huge problem in the city, and there’s a lot of these what’s called third party aftermarket batteries, and those are mostly the ones that are causing the fire. But if you have a lithium battery, and causes a fire and someone gets hurt or there’s a lot of property damage, Under New York law, this is what’s called a products liability case, meaning it was a defective product. And in those situations, anyone in the chain of commerce, the manufacturer, the importer, the distributor, the seller, the retailer. Are all in the chain and they can be held strictly liable for selling a defective product that causes injury even if they didn’t manufacture it and just sold it. So in those situations, that’s who would be the responsible parties.