In The Echo June 26, 2024 Detective Chief Inspector Matt Kehoe stated that police were ‘implementing a program in the coming months’, regarding illegal ‘pushbikes.’ Cr Michael Lyon proposed a motion that Council write to state and federal MPs. Nothing happened.
In The Echo February 19, Richard Hughes of East Ballina loves that more people are cycling. The distinction he lacks is that some of the bikes he is seeing are not e-bikes. They are illegal electric motorbikes, with accelerators, over-powered motors and the ability to travel over 25kph. Mandy Nolan is concerned about helmetless riders suffering brain damage and suggests – albeit whimsically – that mothers confiscate the bikes in question. She can help politically.
I just wrote to MP Tamara Smith requesting:
Licence the riders or have some kind of test for road law knowledge.
Register the motorbikes and enforce third party insurance.
Enable police to blitz these illegal riders for legality and helmets.
Enable police to seize illegal motorbikes.
Put signs on foot and bike paths with speed signage.
Put signs on foot and bike paths banning electric motorbikes.
It’s a matter of time before children/people will be killed, maimed or suffer brain damage.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
