4-year-old boy's arm shattered after being struck by e-bike in Massachusetts: "Sounded like a car accident"

A Hingham, Massachusetts four-year-old boy is recovering after a rider on an e-bike slammed into him while he was on his bicycle. The crash left his arm shattered and elbow dislocated, now his family is trying to raise awareness about the dangers of e-bikes on public walkways.

"I thought it was a car accident. It sounded like a car accident. Then, I heard Chase, our 6-year-old, scream Bode," said Meaghan Rogers talking about her son's accident.

Bode decided to go for a bike ride with Chase. They rode down their driveway and took a turn onto the sidewalk in front of their Main Street home. That's when a teenage rider on an e-bike collided with Bode cracking his helmet and shattering his arm. He laid there with the e-bike on top of him.

"The first thing we did was take that off of him and then hold him. His helmet was smashed and cracked through. His shirt had holes in it from the road rash," said Rogers before talking about his arm. "It was just hanging, and you could tell he couldn't move it at all."

She says the rider felt horrible about what happened and admitted they were going almost 20 mph and had looked at their phone.

"A lot of the kids that are riding them are younger kids that aren't licensed," Rogers said. "They don't know the rules of the road or anything like that."

E-bikes and scooters have become a problem on bike paths. In Allston, someone posted a photo of a moped on a bike path saying they had to jump out of the way. In early May, Governor Maura Healey proposed "The Ride Safe" act which aimed to create riding regulations and standards based off the speed of the device.

Meaghan says she filed a report with police, but she is not pressing charges.

"I don't know what the right answer is because the kids on the e-bikes and their parents, I want those kids to also be safe, and the parents are like we don't want them on the streets," Rogers said.

She hopes Bode's story brings awareness to the issue. She also believes his helmet saved his life, and now she will soon start reaching out to organizations and police to promote helmet usage in her town.

"I don't know how to enforce it otherwise. I don't think it makes sense for police to be out there chasing kids down on them because then that can cause danger," said Rogers.

All she can hope now is that people pay more attention.