Former ABC presenter Margaret Throsby hurt in e-bike collision on an Illawarra shared path

Margaret Throsby, the former ABC broadcaster who worked at the national broadcaster for 55 years, is recovering in hospital after being hit by an e-bike on a shared path in the Illawarra region south of Sydney. ABC News reported on 29 September that the collision happened last Friday, 25 September. Ms Throsby is 84. Her daughter, Holly Throsby, said she has broken her hip and thumb and has some very large haematomas on her head.

According to her family, the e-bike was a large fat bike carrying two teenage boys. Holly Throsby described it as one of those massive fat bikes that look like a motorcycle, heavy before you add two riders. She said the teenagers were mortified and scared, and that the family does not want them charged. Her concern is what comes next: it feels inevitable, she said, that more injuries or even deaths will follow without changes to legislation and better enforcement of the laws already on the books.

The numbers behind the concern

• Sydney Children's Hospital Network figures show the number of children presenting with e-bike injuries rose by a third over the past year, to 94
• The day after Ms Throsby was hurt, NSW Police ran an operation in the region and interacted with 37 e-bike riders under the state's new inspection laws
• E-Bike Safety Australia's Ben Horwood argues an e-bike is a high powered vehicle for a 12 year old, that in most cases the child has not been taught to ride it, and has called for mandatory education and an ID tag on the back of the bike

What the rules already say

A legal e-bike in NSW is limited to 250 watts of continuous motor power, with assistance cutting out at 25 km/h. A large fat bike that behaves like a motorcycle on throttle is not a legal e-bike, however it was sold. NSW Police can now test bikes at the roadside and seize non-compliant ones, a power we covered in our report on Operation E-Voltage, but enforcement only helps once a bike is already on the path.