Man slams court ruling for drunk e-bike ride

Paul Fortuna wound up in court after making a big mistake after having a night out — but he feels he’s been punished for one bizarre reason.

EXCLUSIVE

A Sydney man who copped a 12-month suspension on his driver’s license and a $600 fine after drunkenly riding an e-bike over the Sydney Harbour Bridge has blasted a court ruling that deemed the bicycle to be a “vehicle”.

Redfern man Paul Fortuna, 38, was charged with high-range drink driving after he crashed his e-bike on the Sydney Harbour Bridge after drinking with friends at a pub in North Sydney last September.

Mr Fortuna lost control of the bike about 80m from the bike lane exit onto Observatory Hill. Picture: LinkedIn

He fell from his e-bike and slammed into the fencing of the Harbour Bridge. Picture: Supplied

Mr Fortuna, who is the manager of a courier company, seriously injured his head during the crash and was transported to Royal North Shore Hospital where a blood sample was taken.

The blood sample showed he had a reading of 0.152 – more than three times the legal blood alcohol limit.

A few weeks later, Mr Fortuna received a court notice in the mail notifying him he had been charged with the use or attempted use of a vehicle under the influence of alcohol.

He was handed a $600 fine, a 12-month suspension of his license and ordered to have an interlock device on his car for two years.

The court ruling has set a precedent for e-bike riders in NSW. Picture: Supplied

Mr Fortuna appealed the matter in court last week and managed to have the interlock device order quashed, however, the court still deemed the e-bike a “vehicle”.

Interlock devices require the driver of a motor vehicle to return a legal breath sample limit before starting the ignition.

He said the laws around e-bikes needed to be “cleaned up”.

“They basically haven’t differentiated between an e-bike and a car. I think almost everyone in Australia has been on an e-bike after drinking,” he said, pointing out he was riding in a bike lane, not on the road.

“On a Saturday night you see all the young kids on the e-bikes. I used to ride everywhere, have a beer or two and drive home, but now it’s just not worth it.”

The e-bike that Mr Fortuna was riding was a Cannondale Tesoro Neo X with a 250 watt pedal assisted Bosch electric motor. Picture: Supplied

The pedal assist cuts out at 25 kilometres per hour. Picture: Supplied

Mr Fortuna said he felt he was being “punished for” having a driver’s license and questioned how someone without one would be equally penalised.

Under the current laws, police cannot breath test an e-bike rider unless they have been involved in a crash.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge cycleway. Picture: iStock

“The law should be fair for everyone, but here the law is unfair if you hold a car license.”

During the original sentence in March, Downing Central Local Court Magistrate Julie Zaki said her hands were “tied” due to the legislation.

“It is a strange situation,” she said.

“I just don’t have a choice that’s the minimum disqualification that attaches to that. So while I am sympathetic, just given the circumstances and that it is an e-bike, there’s nothing really I can do.”

Mr Fortuna’s lawyer Maurice Baroni called it a “quirk of the legislation”.

“It is, unfortunately,” Magistrate Zaki said.

During the appeal last week, Judge Troy Anderson SC said the e-bike was a vehicle under the current legislation which is anything “on wheels”.

“An E-bike comes within that definition,” he stated in the decision.

However, he determined an e-bike did not meet the definition with NSW’s Road Transport Act and thus could not be subject to the mandatory interlock.