BikinginLA

Every traffic death is a needless waste of a human life.

It’s even worse when it’s a kid. And maybe it doesn’t even matter if he was on a legal ebike or not, because the result is the same.

At least, that was the case Saturday night when a 14-year old boy was killed riding an ebike in Pacific Beach.

A number of sources are reporting that the boy was riding on Olney Street at Balboa Ave in the San Diego neighborhood when he allegedly went through a red light around 9:20 pm, and was struck by a 38-year old driver headed west on Balboa.

The victim, identified as Owen Harris, an 8th grade student at Pacific Beach Middle School, died after being taken to a hospital.

The driver remained at the scene following the crash, and cooperated with investigators.

And no, CBS8, he was not struck and killed by a Tesla. Whether or not the driver was at fault, the car had one. As we’ve discussed many times before, whether or not Harris ran the red light depends a lot on whether there were any independent witnesses who saw the crash, other than the driver who killed him.

Harris was also riding a legal ped-assist ebike — or at least an ebike that was sold as one. The website for the pink Zooz ebike he was riding stresses that they are sold as Class 2 ebikes with a maximum speed of 20 mph.

Although it’s not hard to find instructions online for how to easily “uncork” at least some of their ebikes to exceed the legal speed limit.

But again, whether the bike was uncorked or otherwise does not change the outcome in any way. Or the tragic loss of a young man with virtually unlimited possibilities.

This is at least the 45th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the 10th we know about in San Diego County — an average of more than one a month.

My deepest sympathies and prayers for Owen Harris and all his family and loved ones. 

Thanks to Phillip for the heads-up.