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NSW police have issued a fine against an American social media personality and handed out two driving violation citations for alleged reckless operation following a swarm of electric bicycle users converged on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the busy commute on Tuesday.

The Event: An Illegal Gathering

A gathering of approximately 40 people operating electric bikes and motorbikes proceeded along the primary roadway of the bridge, where cycling is prohibited. The assembly subsequently reversed direction and traveled through the city’s CBD and Haymarket.

"This had potential for people to be injured and killed," remarked NSW police assistant commissioner David Driver on Wednesday.

Police said they did not immediately pursue the riders out of concerns for public safety but instead located the assembly at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the Botanic Gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Influencer

On Saturday, police announced they had issued the US social media influencer who goes by Sur Ronster, twenty-six, with two violation tickets for negligent driving (with no death or previous bodily harm), with a fine of over five hundred dollars and penalty points per notice, connected to the bridge incident. They added that the investigation is ongoing.

The personality reportedly has more than 3.4m subscribers on YouTube and more than 1.2m on Instagram.

Influencer's Comments

The online figure gave comments to a major newspaper this week following the event gained traction on digital platforms, stating he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was one of the safest gatherings I have witnessed," he said. "I am a visitor here, and I intend to come here respecting the laws and norms of Sydney. So when I decided to do a meet and greet it was not meant to include a group ride, it was just to greet people under the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, I am to blame we found ourselves on the bridge and I had two choices: whether the group rides the full length of the bridge and comes back, an illegal act. Or we turn around, essentially, before we’re on the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to go back."

Broader Context on E-Bike Regulation

The spate of e-bikes on streets across the country has prompted increasing demands for regulation. The federal health minister, the minister, commented that illegal ebikes were a "complete hazard on the road."

"Young people have engaged in stupid things on bikes since the invention of the early bicycle [but] the injuries that are coming into our hospital emergency departments are absolutely devastating," the minister said. "We’ve got to make sure we prevent these things coming into the country [and] police are given the powers to take strong action, to take them away, to crush them, to destroy them."

NSW reported over two hundred injuries related to electric bikes in 2024. But, in the first seven months of the following year, that number surged to 233 injuries plus four fatalities.