E-bike registration: Victoria police told to consider ‘radical’ rego scheme after rider Nitin Prabhu’s death

A Victorian coroner has told authorities to crack down on illegal e-bikes, and consider a “radical” new registration scheme.

A coroner has told Victoria Police, VicRoads and the Department of Transport to consider a “radical” proposal to register e-bikes, after an investigation revealed many of them to be faster and more powerful than Victorian laws allow.

Coroner Audrey Jamieson’s investigation into the January 2024 death of e-bike rider Nitin Prabhu, 41, found his bike’s motor had an advertised power rating of 250w and a top speed of 32km/h.

Victoria’s road rules deem any motorised bicycle with more than a 200w motor and a top speed of greater than 25km/h to be a motorbike.

Mr Prabhu, an “accomplished” and confident cyclist, suffered a traumatic brain injury and died in hospital following a collision with another e-bike rider on Mont Albert Road in Canterbury last January.

Nitin Prabhu, 41, has died following an e-bike collision on Mont Albert Rd in Canterbury on January 30, 2024.

A police investigation into the accident found Mr Prabhu’s bike could reach “approximately 30km/h, although police did not have the equipment to test its precise power output.

Ms Jamieson, whose investigation findings were published without holding public inquest hearings, said the e-bike was “most appropriately classified as a motorcycle”.

Mr Prabhu ought to have been wearing more safety gear, including a motorbike helmet, when he crashed.

Ms Jamieson said: “This would have provided greater protection from injury, including head injury, upon contact with the road surface”.

She said Victorian authorities’ attempts to regulate the increasingly popular vehicles appeared “sub-optimal”.

“There is ample evidence that Australian e-bicycle retailers import and sell vehicles that would be too powerful to be classified as e-bicycles in some jurisdictions, such as Victoria,” Ms Jamieson said.

Coroner Audrey Jamieson said many e-bikes on the road are faster and more powerful than Victorian laws allow. Picture: iStock

Shops used loopholes such as advertising vehicles as “off road” despite knowing customers would use them in the city, and by selling vehicles with speed limiters that customers could easily turn off.

Mr Prabhu purchased his e-bike from a NSW retailer, where different laws allow for slightly faster and more powerful e-bikes to be lawfully ridden on public roads.

Ms Jamieson said authorities should meet to “discuss the issue of non-compliant e-bicycles” including solutions “which may seem radical — such as requiring the registration of all e-bicycles”.

Ms Jamieson also urged a wider crackdown, urging authorities to “consider methods to identify non-compliant e-bikes”.

“I consider Nitin Haldipu Prabhu’s death as a tragic reminder of the importance for greater regulations of e-bicycles and I hope that with a concerted effort, such fatalities may be avoided in the future,” she said.

Mr Prabhu was survived by his wife and daughter.

The other e-bike rider who caused the fatal crash was not injured, was riding a legal e-bike, and was not charged.