Pedestrian dies in hospital after being struck by modified e-bike

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Pedestrian dies in hospital after being struck by modified e-bike​

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Updated May 13, 2025 — 5.26pmfirst published at 10.11am

An electric bike involved in a collision that left a man dead had been illegally modified to travel at up to
90km/h, police say.

The e-bike, which hit the man while he was walking across a busy Mornington Peninsula road on Monday night, had a battery that was held together by duct tape and cable ties, police said.

The 69-year-old had been walking home from the shops suffered life-threatening upper and lower body injuries, police said. He was flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital where he subsequently died.

A 24-year-old Hastings man, who police allege was riding the illegally modified e-bike, was driven to The Alfred Hospital with serious upper and lower body injuries.

“The battery has [been] increased in size,” Inspector Craig McEvoy said. “It’s been held together with duct tape and cable ties to increase the speed and the capacity, the power wattage, of the actual bike.

“Anything that increases the power to the bike, the speed of the bike [is illegal].

Under Victorian law, an e-bike modified to produce speeds of higher than 25km/h or continuous power output of more than 200 watts is legally considered a motorcycle.

E-bikes don’t need to be registered and riders don’t need to be licensed, provided they meet legal requirements.