Electric bikes will not be legally treated as vehicles, justices rule
The decision was not unanimous, with one judge dissenting from the majority opinion.
By YONAH JEREMY BOB A man rides an electric bicycle, also known as an e-bike, in downtown Milan, Italy, May 18, 2018.(photo credit: STEFANO RELLANDINI/REUTERS)
Electric bikes are not “motor vehicles” for the purpose of assessing damages in accidents, the High Court of Justice ruled Monday.With a large volume of accidents involving fast-moving electric bikes with cars and pedestrians in recent years, the ruling has immediate implications.The justices were not unanimous in their decision. Justices David Mintz and Isaac Amit said electric bikes should be treated like “pedestrians.” Justice Daphne Barak-Erez said they should be considered as motor vehicles such as cars and motorcycles.The main decisive point should be that electric bikes have motors and move at speeds much more synonymous with cars and motorcycles, Barak-Erez said.Mintz and Amit said they were fundamentally different than cars and motorcycles, which was why the Knesset has not required them to be registered and to carry insurance the way cars must.Unless the Knesset passes a law that changes the High Court’s definition of electric bikes, cars that hit electric bikes will be presumed to be at fault; pedestrians who collide with electric bikes will need to litigate the issue the same as if they collided with a bicycle rider or another pedestrian.
