🔗 Share this article

New South Wales police have levied a penalty against an American social media personality and served two driving violation citations for reported reckless operation following a swarm of e-bike riders converged on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during peak-hour traffic on a weekday.

The Incident: An Illegal Gathering

A gathering of around 40 people riding electric bikes and motorbikes travelled along the bridge’s main deck, an area where bicycle riding is banned. The assembly then turned around and traveled through the city’s CBD and Haymarket.

"There was a risk of people to be injured and killed," stated a senior police official David Driver on the following day.

Law enforcement said they did not immediately pursue the riders out of safety concerns but instead located the group at a scenic Sydney lookout near the Botanic Gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Influencer

On Saturday, authorities announced they had issued the US social media influencer known as Sur Ronster, 26, with two violation tickets for careless operation (not involving death or prior injury), carrying a penalty of $562 and penalty points each, in relation to the bridge incident. Officials noted that the investigation is ongoing.

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

Influencer's Comments

The content creator spoke with a local publication recently after the incident spread rapidly on digital platforms, stating he regretted giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.

"I accept the blame. That was among the safest gatherings I’ve ever seen," he told the publication. "I am a visitor here, and I intend to abide by the laws and norms of Sydney. So when I decided to do a public meeting it did not involve a group ride, it was just to say hi under the bridge."

"I did not know the area well, it was my fault we found ourselves on the bridge and I had a decision to make: whether the group rides the full length of the bridge and comes back, an illegal act. Or we turn around, basically, before we’re on the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to go back."

National Debate on E-Bike Regulation

The spate of e-bikes on streets across the country has prompted increasing demands for regulation. A senior government official, the minister, recently said that illegal ebikes were a "total menace on the road."

"Kids have done reckless acts on bikes since the invention of the penny-farthing [but] the injuries that are presenting at our hospital emergency departments are truly severe," the minister said. "We’ve got to ensure we prevent these things entering the country [and] officers are given the powers to take strong action, to take them away, to crush them, to dispose of them."

The state reported 226 injuries associated with ebikes in the previous year. But, in the first seven months of the following year, that number surged to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four deaths.