Juvenile e-bike rider dies after crash near Boise Bench. Police investigating
The Boise Police Department is investigating a fatal crash involving a motorcycle and an e-bike that took place in Morris Hill, near the Boise Bench, Thursday night.
Officers and Boise Fire Department personnel responded to the scene near the intersection of Phillippi Street and Morris Hill Road at around 8 p.m., where two juvenile e-bike riders and an adult motorcyclist had collided, according to a news release from the Boise Police Department. One of the e-bike riders, a juvenile male, was transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and died shortly later, the release said.
A second e-bike rider, a juvenile female, sustained minor injuries and was transported to the hospital. The adult male motorcyclist was transported to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, the release said.
Police believe the motorcyclist was traveling northbound and that the e-bike riders, who were riding together on the bike, were traveling westbound when the crash occurred. The Phillippi-Morris Hill intersection was closed Thursday night while a crash-reconstruction team investigated the site.
Detectives with Boise’s criminal investigation division also aided in the investigation, which is ongoing. Nobody has been cited or charged with a crime in the crash, according to the release.
Details about the age or identity of the male e-bike rider have not been released.
Police noted that the e-bike was a 750-watt electric bicycle with pedals. The city of Boise recently passed an emergency ordinance differentiating e-bikes from electric motorcycles, or “e-motos,” and limiting these more powerful vehicles to only public roads, requiring them to be street legal. The ordinance defined e-motos as two- or three-wheeled electric vehicles exceeding 750 watts “or capable of a top speed of more than 28 miles per hour.”
