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NSW authorities have levied a penalty against an US-based online influencer and handed out two driving violation citations for alleged reckless operation following a swarm of e-bike riders converged on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during peak-hour traffic on Tuesday.

The Event: An Illegal Gathering

A gathering of around 40 people riding electric bikes and motorbikes travelled along the bridge’s main deck, an area where bicycle riding is banned. The assembly then turned around and traveled through the city’s CBD and a nearby district.

"There was potential for serious injury or fatalities," remarked a senior police official David Driver on the following day.

Police said they did not chase right away the group out of safety concerns but rather found the assembly at a scenic Sydney lookout near the city gardens, where they dispersed.

Penalties Issued for Content Creator

Later in the week, police announced they had issued the US social media influencer known as the influencer, 26, with two traffic infringement notices for negligent driving (not involving death or prior injury), carrying a fine of over five hundred dollars and penalty points each, connected to the bridge ride-out. Officials noted that inquiries were continuing.

The personality reportedly has over 3.4 million subscribers on one platform and over 1.2m on the social media app.

Creator's Response

The online figure spoke with a local publication this week following the event spread rapidly on news sites and social media, saying he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. That was one of the safest gatherings I have witnessed," he said. "I’m coming here as a guest, and I intend to come here respecting the laws and norms of the city. When I decided to do a meet and greet it did not involve a group ride, it was just to say hi near the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, it was my fault we found ourselves on the bridge and I had a decision to make: either the group rides the full length of the bridge and turns around, which is a crime. Or we reverse, basically, before entering the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to turn around."

Broader Context on Electric Bike Rules

The increase of electric bicycles on roads nationwide has prompted growing calls for regulation. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, recently said that non-compliant electric bikes were a "complete hazard on the road."

"Kids have done reckless acts on bikes since the invention of the penny-farthing [but] the harm that are coming into our ERs are truly severe," the minister said. "We’ve got to make sure we stop these things entering the country [and] police are granted the authority to crack down, to take them away, to destroy them, to dispose of them."

The state recorded over two hundred injuries related to electric bikes in the previous year. But, in the initial half of the following year, that number surged to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four fatalities.