Orange Boy Dies After E-Motorcycle Crash in Garden Grove

Orange County police say a 13-year-old boy died after crashing an off-highway e-motorcycle into a center median in Garden Grove on Thursday, May 7. The boy was riding in the left lane on southbound Magnolia Street near Larson Avenue at about 9:50 p.m.

Nick Jensen, a Garden Grove police sergeant, said officers found the boy unconscious while paramedics were loading him into an ambulance. He wore a regular bicycle helmet and later died at the hospital.

Magnolia Street and Larson Avenue

Jensen said investigators learned the Santa Ana resident was in the left lane when the southbound lanes turned to the right while crossing Larson Avenue. That detail matters because the crash involved an off-highway e-motorcycle with pegs, not pedals, the type Garden Grove police showed in an Instagram photo after the collision.

Off-road electric motorcycles with pegs instead of pedals are not legal to ride on public streets in California. State law draws a tighter line for children and teenagers on pedal-assisted e-bikes: Class 1 and Class 2 models can be ridden by children under 16 with a helmet and top out at 20 mph, while Class 3 e-bikes reach 28 mph and are limited to riders 16 and older.

Todd Spitzer's recent cases

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer has recently filed charges against parents after children were involved in e-motorcycle crashes. In March, a Yorba Linda father was charged with felony child endangerment and abuse and a misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after prosecutors said he gifted his son an e-motorcycle and worked with him to modify it to reach speeds up to 60 mph.

That case also involved a crash in July, when prosecutors said the boy ran a red light and was hit by a car. The boy suffered a concussion, a skull fracture, a broken wrist and a fractured femur, and prosecutors said the e-motorcycle had already been impounded in December 2024 after a citation.

In the following month, the boy, his father and his brother attended a Yorba Linda Police Services e-bike safety course. In April, prosecutors charged an Aliso Viejo mother with involuntary manslaughter and other counts after her son was accused of doing wheelies on an e-motorcycle near El Toro High School in Lake Forest and striking an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran on April 16.

The Garden Grove death sits inside that same enforcement pattern: a child on a vehicle built for off-road use, a street where the road geometry changed, and a county attorney already moving against adults tied to earlier crashes. For families buying or supervising these machines, the practical boundary is simple: a pegs-and-pedals mismatch can be the difference between a bike that fits California’s youth rules and one that should stay off public streets.