A sixth-grade boy is recovering after crashing his e-bike in St. Johns County on Monday night.
It happened around 7:30 p.m. on Race Track Road in the Julington Creek area.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
The child was flown to a local trauma center, where he was listed in critical condition.
Action News Jax has learned that the boy is 12-year-old Parker Anderson.
RELATED: Child in critical condition after e-bike crash in St. Johns County
The St. Johns County School District confirmed that Parker is a student at Fruit Cove Middle School. Parker’s father told Foglio that Parker is now off a breathing tube and he is breathing on his own, however, he is not fully awake yet.
Little did Nikki-Lyn Holm know that she would be in the right place at the right time.
Holm was driving down Race Track Road and saw the child on the ground seconds after he crashed.
WATCH: Man catches crashes, near misses on video at Avondale intersection near his home
“I saw him just not moving. And I saw a runner with him and instantly stopped and ran over just to see, make sure he was OK,” Holm said. “And he wasn’t.”
She and the jogger immediately began to render aid to the boy. They stayed with him while first responders arrived on the scene. As a mother of four herself, Holm posted online in search of his parents.
“As a mom, just my heart was breaking that his parents wouldn’t know what happened, where he was, if he didn’t come home,” Holm said.
Read: ‘Sacrificed his life for the children’: Army veteran drowns saving relatives off Fernandina Beach
The boy’s injuries are now sparking questions about just how safe e-bikes are.
Brian Collie, the owner of Open Road Bicycles in St. Johns County, said they can be if they are used correctly, but that’s not what he’s been seeing.
“There’s an age group,” Collie said. “It’s 11 to 15, and they’re constantly crashing these things, and they’re on overpowered e-bike, which are technically illegal here in the state of Florida.”
Read: GM recalls nearly 600,000 Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC cars due to engine failure risks
Under Florida law, three classes of e-bikes are permitted. For two of them, the speed limit is 20 mph. The other type can go up to 28 mph. All three e-bike classes cannot have motors with more than 750 watts of power.
Collie said many e-bikes being brought into his shop are illegal e-bikes.
“A lot of these e-bikes we’re seeing, something like this that looks more like a motorcycle, can have motors up to 2000 watts and can do 40 to 45 miles an hour,” Collie said.
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
It’s not clear if the sixth grader in St. Johns County was riding one of those high-powered e-bikes.
Action News Jax’s Madison Foglio asked Collie if he thinks there needs to be more regulations put in place on e-Bike riders. He said the regulations are clearly spelled out by the state of Florida, but they need to be enforced more.
“Somebody needs to kind of control and rein this in because it’s starting to get really dangerous,” Collie said. “Every week, we see a crashed e-bike from somebody who has destroyed their bike and gotten hurt. Yeah, it’s a shame.”
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Collie said some ways people can stay safe on e-bikes are by riding a legal e-bike, stay off the sidewalks, and wearing a helmet.
Action News Jax’s Ben Becker spoke to St. Johns County Commissioner Sarah Arnold on Tuesday evening. She told him the county and St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office have been reviewing a draft e-bike ordinance since last week. She said there’s no timeline yet for the legislation to be introduced.
A GoFundMe has been set up to assist Parker’s family. Click here to learn more.
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
