A teenager vacationing in Florida had already grabbed a helmet before heading out on an e-bike. Then he changed his mind.
Eli Scheinoha went back and exchanged what he called a “lesser” helmet for one of the better helmets he and his father had brought with them. Minutes later, his e-bike collided with a car in Indian Rocks Beach.
Eli went over the hood and hit the ground, landing largely on his left knee and helmet. The bike was left mangled, but Eli ultimately walked away with a bruised knee and a scraped-up helmet.
His father, Shawn Scheinoha, credits the helmet with protecting his son from what could have been a far worse outcome.
One More Trip
The Scheinohas were visiting Florida from Georgia when Eli took an e-bike out by himself near 14th Avenue North in Indian Rocks Beach, according to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.
Before leaving, Eli initially took one helmet before deciding to turn around.
“Our best helmets were in my dad’s room and he was asleep, so I first took a lesser one but came back and swapped it for the really good helmet,” Eli told the hospital.
Minutes later, he was involved in a collision with a car.
Eli remembered flying through the air and waking up as people came to his aid. He recalled telling one person to call his father while someone else called 911.
FOX 13 reported that Eli went over the hood and landed mostly on his left knee and helmet. First responders took him to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital as a trauma alert for his leg injury.
The publicly available accounts do not establish how the collision occurred or assign fault to either Eli or the driver.
A Different Helmet
Shawn had experience with road and mountain bicycles, but the family’s move into e-bikes had prompted him to reconsider what kind of helmet his son needed.
Weeks before the Florida trip, he began looking at helmets intended for e-bike riding and higher-speed impacts. Some of the better-equipped models came with features such as crash detection and Bluetooth notifications, and the prices initially gave him pause.
The purchase looked different after the crash.
Shawn later contacted the helmet’s manufacturer to thank the company for making the product he believes helped his son leave the emergency department with only a bruised knee and damaged helmet.
“The helmet saved his life for sure,” Shawn told FOX 13.
Johns Hopkins used Eli’s experience to draw attention to a distinction that may not be obvious to families buying an e-bike: not every helmet is designed or tested for the same type of riding.
Petra Vybiralova Stanton, injury prevention program manager at the hospital and lead for Safe Kids Florida Suncoast, recommends that families using faster e-bikes and e-scooters look for helmets meeting the Dutch NTA 8776 standard, which was developed with higher-speed riding in mind.
The hospital did not identify the manufacturer or model of Eli’s helmet in its article.
More Trauma Calls
The hospital says Eli is part of a growing group of young patients arriving after e-bike crashes.
Tiffany Dugan, Johns Hopkins All Children’s trauma program manager, said the hospital had received 84 trauma calls involving e-bikes during the previous eight months, excluding minor injuries involving battery-powered bicycles.
The issue extends beyond one Florida hospital. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated 155,200 emergency-department-treated injuries associated with e-bikes from 2017 through 2024, along with 310 fatalities, according to figures cited by Johns Hopkins.
Florida law treats an electric bicycle largely the same as a bicycle and allows local governments to establish their own minimum operating ages. The state’s 2026 electric-bicycle statute does not establish a statewide minimum operating age.
Riders under 16 are subject to Florida’s separate bicycle helmet requirement, which calls for a properly fitted and securely fastened helmet meeting the federal bicycle helmet standard.
Pinellas County also operates Move Safe Pinellas, a bicycle and pedestrian safety program that works with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and Pinellas County Schools. The program distributes helmets and other safety equipment and directs residents to additional e-bike safety information.
Back On Two Wheels
Eli’s crash did not end his interest in e-bikes.
By the time Johns Hopkins published its account, he was out of his knee brace, had a replacement helmet, and was riding again.
The experience did change the sales pitch he had for other teenagers who might think helmets do not look particularly cool.
“I thought they looked kind of corny, but I always knew it’s worth the uncoolness if you get hit by a car,” Eli told the hospital.