Palm Beach Currumbin State High School to introduce licence and number plate system for e-bikes
A southern Gold Coast school which is overrun by more than 500 e-bikes will soon enforce students to get a registration after a shocking series of accidents.
Students at a Gold Coast high school will complete e-bike training, and be issued licences and number plates if they want to keep riding to school in 2026.
Palm Beach Currumbin State High School, which has an estimated $1 million worth of devices in schoolgrounds, will trial the short-term solution ahead of the state government’s inquiry in March.
The move follows a shocking series of injuries linked to e-bikes with at least one person a week is taken to hospital.
Tragically, a 17-year-old has died, two students are living with permanent brain injuries, and another has undergone surgery to save his foot following crashes on the electronic devices.
Executive principal Chris Capra said he hoped the licences would slow the statistics before laws officially changed.
“The students will not be allowed to bring their devices onto the school ground without a number plate,” Mr Capra said.
“We are going to try to roll this out over term one next year so by term two if the students do not have number plates they will not be able to park them on the school site.”
Students who do not comply with the new rules could cop a suspension for “consistent noncompliance with road rules and community safety”.
The state development, infrastructure and works committee met with Mr Capra and senior police constable Kurt Foessel on the Gold Coast on Monday to address e-mobility safety.
It comes after the Bulletin launched Huddo’s Law last month after PBC student Hudson Gagg, 17, died in an e-bike crash on the southern Gold Coast, calling for a series of reforms.
Two other students crashed into 19-year-old Poppi Watson’s car on December 5, and are still recovering from the horrific crash.
One of the students had surgery to save his foot on Monday.
Mr Capra said the school recently joined E-Bike Safety Australia to help run a “comprehensive education program aimed at students developing their road sense and their safety using these devices”.
WHY BANNING E-BIKES AT PBC ISN’T A FEASIBLE OPTION
While three Sunshine Coast schools banned “all e-bikes and e-scooters” from their campuses following two tragic deaths, Mr Capra said banning the e-bikes would be “moving the problem from inside the school gates to a community problem”.
“The students would store their devices on the Gold Coast City council property next door or they would chain the bikes up at Salk Oval,” he said.
Constable Foessel added banning them was not a “quick fix”.
“To close that down overnight I think would be extremely challenging for anyone.”
Constable Foessel said the onus was also on parents to understand which devices were legal and illegal.
“I had stopped a young person on an e-scooter (recently), he was 14 and he was totally oblivious to the fact that between 12 and 16 you have to be supervised.”
Constable Foessel said they also had spoken with a student who was riding his e-bike from his home in Banora Point to PBC, a 40km return ride.
“That takes significant burden off his parents, as you can imagine – both parents are working these days,” he said.
“Conversely, I have kids who ride e-bikes who are 400 metres away from the school. I am not sure I quite understand why you would need an e-bike for that.”
Mr Capra said they would also be faced with students not attending school if they decided to ban the devices.
“I doubt it would be an absolute collapse in attendance, given that it is only 300 to 500 devices, but in the short term there would be a reduction if the bikes were banned.”
Constable Foessel said the number plate system could have stopped one PBC student who bowled over two four-year-old’s in Tugun within a three-week period, in January.
“He hit one so hard that they somersaulted through the air and another one got dragged along under his bike,” he said.
“It took us a little while to identify him but we (did so) with the help of the school and he was dealt with under the Juvenile Justice Act.
“A number plate would certainly have removed the anonymity and helped him to ride in a better way.”
More Coverage
‘Lost for words’: Jack Beasley Foundation gets $1m knife crime pledge
