Woman struck by e-bike testifies at committee hearing; advocates for bill

A crash involving an electric bike nearly took the life of Janet Stotko, a Hastings, Minnesota, woman, in the summer of 2024.  

"I was rushed into emergency brain surgery, and a craniotomy was performed to save my life," said Stotko, who was hit by a 14-year-old on a motorized bike flying down a sidewalk at 25 miles per hour.

Stotko says the last thing she remembers on August 12th, 2024, was walking out the door and setting her Apple Watch. The rider wasn't charged, and she says she didn't get compensation for the more than $20,000 in medical bills. She says she also never heard from the rider's family.

"Personal injury protection was denied, uninsured motorist coverage was denied because e-moto bikes aren't clearly defined in law," she said while testifying at Wednesday's Minnesota House Transportation committee meeting. "This accident could happen to anybody."

That's why Stotko is working with Representative Tom Dippel to get the terms defined on paper. To keep too-fast electric bikes off side-walks.

"There's class 1, 2 and 3 e-bikes" said Dippel. "Those bikes are 750 watts or less of power in their motor." Dippel added that there's another category of e-bikes between 750 and 1500 watts. "Beyond that you're talking about a motorcycle and a motorcycle certainly doesn't belong on a sidewalk. There's laws against that but this isn't well defined." 

The proposal met with support from lawmakers.

"Obviously we see the need for the bill," said Rep. Jon Koznick at the meeting.

"I think we're heading in the right direction, we do have a couple more technical changes we've requested," said Kyle Makarios of the Motorcycle Industry Council.

"Our hope and goal is to keep as much momentum as we can behind this so it moves along in the process and can get to the governor's desk," Dippel told WCCO.

The bill is set to go before the Commerce Committee before a possible vote in the House.