A mother has called for a crackdown on dangerous e-bike riders after her nine-year-old son was struck by a modified e-bike in Hawick, leaving him with concussion and cuts.
Luke Lane was playing outside his home on Queens Drive on Monday evening when a teenage boy riding an e-bike crashed into him. The schoolboy was treated at the scene by ambulance crews before being taken to Borders General Hospital for a CT scan after suffering sickness.
Mother's account
His mother, Yvonne Dobson, said she had just called Luke in for the night and was watching him cross the road when the incident happened. “A teenage boy suddenly appeared riding the e-bike at considerable speed and before I could react, it smacked into him,” she said. “Luke went flying into the air and hit his head on the pavement. I rushed out into the street and he was lying there out cold.”
She feared the worst, but when she rolled him onto his side he regained consciousness and burst into tears. He was given the all-clear after his scan but remains shaken. “His head and pelvis are badly swollen but it could have been so much worse,” she added.
Call for regulation
Dobson said youths in the town have been riding e-bikes dangerously and putting the public at risk. Police told her the bike that hit Luke had been modified to exceed the legal speed limit of 15mph in Scotland. She is now calling for better regulation, including requiring a driving licence and registration for e-bike users, and urging parents to think twice before buying them for their children.
“The authorities need to do something to clamp down on this issue. People driving e-bikes should have a driving licence and be registered. I also want parents to know these bikes can be deadly. My child could have been killed,” she said.
Official response
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We received a call at 20:01 on Monday 20 July to attend a road traffic collision on Queen Drive, Hawick. We dispatched an ambulance to the scene.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 8.05pm on Monday, 20 July, 2026, we received a report of a 9-year-old boy struck by an electric bike on Queens Drive, Hawick. Ambulance attended, however, he did not require hospital treatment. A 15-year-old male youth has been charged in connection with road traffic offences and the bike was seized. A report will be forwarded to the relevant agencies.”
