American Social Media Personality Penalized After Mass E-Bike Ride on Iconic Australian Bridge

New South Wales authorities have levied a penalty against an US-based online influencer and served two traffic infringement notices for alleged negligent driving following a large group of e-bike riders gathered on the famous Sydney landmark during peak-hour traffic on a weekday.

The Event: An Illegal Gathering

A gathering of around 40 people operating e-bikes and motorcycles travelled along the bridge’s main deck, an area where bicycle riding is banned. The assembly subsequently reversed direction and rode through the downtown area and a nearby district.

"This had potential for people to be injured and killed," stated a senior police official the officer on Wednesday.

Law enforcement said they did not immediately pursue the riders out of safety concerns but rather found the group at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the city gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Influencer

On Saturday, police announced they had issued the American online personality who goes by Sur Ronster, 26, with two violation tickets for careless operation (with no death or previous bodily harm), with a fine of $562 and three demerit points each, connected to the bridge incident. Officials noted that inquiries were continuing.

The influencer reportedly has over 3.4m followers on YouTube and over 1.2 million on Instagram.

Influencer's Comments

The content creator spoke with a local publication this week after the incident spread rapidly on digital platforms, saying he regretted giving "bike life" a negative image.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was one of the safest ride-outs I’ve ever seen," he said. "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 meet and greet it was not meant to include a group ride, it was just to greet people near the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, I am to blame we found ourselves on the bridge and I had two choices: whether the group rides the full length of the bridge and turns around, an illegal act. Or we reverse, essentially, before we’re on the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to go back."

National Debate on E-Bike Regulation

The increase of e-bikes on streets across the country has prompted increasing demands for regulation. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, recently said that non-compliant electric bikes were a "complete hazard 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 hospital emergency departments are truly severe," he said. "We must ensure we prevent these things coming into the country [and] police are given the powers to crack down, to take them away, to crush them, to dispose of them."

NSW reported over two hundred injuries related to ebikes in the previous year. But, in the initial half of the following year, that figure jumped to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four deaths.