An e-bike crash at a busy North Palm Beach intersection on Wednesday evening sent a 30-year-old man to a trauma center with serious head injuries, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.
The wreck comes as reports of e-bike injuries and fatalities are surging across Florida, with trauma centers reporting a sharp increase in incidents, particularly among children, according to the American College of Surgeons
.The crash happened at about 5 p.m. Aug 19 at the intersection of Palmetto Road and U.S. 1, at the old Twin City Mall site just south of Northlake Boulevard.
A sheriff's report said Michael Vamper, a Broward resident, was riding a e-bike southbound on the east sidewalk of U.S. 1. when he "improperly" travelled off the sidewalk and crashed
into the driver's side door of a Ford SUV.
The SUV's driver, a 70-year-old Lake Park woman, was eastbound on Palmetto and turning onto U.S. 1 with a green light, according to the crash report.
The force of the crash caused the e-bike to overturn, throwing Vamper into the roadway. Investigators said Vamper was not wearing a helmet and suffered serious head injuries.
Paramedics drove Vamper to a trauma center the report does not specify. The SUV driver received treatment for minor injuries at a hospital.
There are no charges pending against the SUV driver, the Sheriff’s Office said. The report does not specify how fast either vehicle was traveling at the time of the crash.
In Palm Beach County, e-bike fatalities peaked in 2025 with six recorded deaths. Several cities in the county have passed laws to prohibit and limit the use of e-bikes including Wellington, Jupiter, Juno Beach and Palm Beach.
Florida lawmakers passed legislation in March to regulate e-bikes that include issuing a fines to riders traveling more than 10 miles per hour within 50 feet of pedestrians.
Valentina Palm covers immigration and Palm Beach County's western communities for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: E-bike crash in North Palm leaves man with serious head injuries
