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New South Wales police have levied a penalty against an US-based online influencer and handed out two driving violation citations for alleged reckless operation after a large group of e-bike riders converged on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the busy commute on a weekday.

The Event: An Illegal Gathering

A group of around 40 individuals riding e-bikes and motorcycles travelled along the bridge’s main deck, where cycling is prohibited. The riders subsequently reversed direction and rode through the city’s CBD and Haymarket.

"This had a risk of people to be injured and killed," stated a senior police official David Driver on Wednesday.

Police said they did not immediately pursue the group due to concerns for public safety but rather found the group at a scenic Sydney lookout near the Botanic Gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Influencer

On Saturday, police stated they had served the US social media influencer known as the influencer, 26, with two violation tickets for negligent driving (not involving death or prior injury), with a penalty of over five hundred dollars and three demerit points each, in relation to the bridge ride-out. They added that inquiries were continuing.

The influencer is said to have more than 3.4m subscribers on YouTube and more than 1.2m on Instagram.

Influencer's Comments

The content creator gave comments to a local publication recently following the event gained traction on news sites and social media, saying he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.

"I accept the blame. That was one of the safest gatherings I have witnessed," he told the publication. "I’m coming here as a guest, and I intend to abide by the laws and norms of Sydney. When I decided to do a meet and greet it did not involve a ride-out, it was just to say hi near the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, I am to blame we found ourselves on the bridge and I had a decision to make: either the group completes the entirety of the bridge and turns around, which is a crime. Or we reverse, essentially, before we’re on the bridge. I chose at the time to go back."

National Debate on E-Bike Regulation

The spate of e-bikes on streets across the country has sparked growing calls for stricter rules. A senior government official, the minister, 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 early bicycle [but] the injuries that are coming into our ERs are absolutely devastating," the minister said. "We must ensure we prevent these things coming into the country [and] police are granted the powers to crack down, to confiscate them, to crush them, to dispose of them."

NSW reported 226 injuries related to electric bikes in the previous year. However, in the initial half of the following year, that figure surged to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four fatalities.