A California woman may go to prison after her child hit and critically injured an 81-year-old man while riding an e-bike.
Tommi Jo Mejer, 50, is being charged with one felony count of child endangerment, one felony count of accessory after the fact to a crime, one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, one misdemeanor count of loaning a motor vehicle to an unlicensed driver and one misdemeanor count of providing false information to a peace officer, according to ABC 7.
Mejer was arrested on Thursday. Prosecutors say that she had already been warned not to let her son ride his e-bike.
Ed Ashman, a Vietnam veteran and substitute teacher, is currently hospitalized in critical condition.
“We are praying that this substitute school teacher will have a full recovery, and that the charges don’t change at all,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer told ABC 7.
According to investigators, Mejer’s son was riding a Surron e-motorcyle and was “doing wheelies” outside of El Toro High School in Lake Forest, California. Ashman was working as a substitute teacher at the school and was walking home when Mejer’s son crashed into him.
Under California law, to be considered an e-bike, vehicles must be manufactured with a maximum speed of 20 miles per hour and are not subject to age restrictions or licensing. E-bikes that can go faster or that are modified to go faster are instead considered e-motorcyles and require riders to posses a motorcycle license, insurance, and registration.
“It could go up to 60 mph with that particular model, and it could go from like 35 mph in two to three seconds,” Spitzer said of the bike.
Last June, police warned Mejer not to let her 14-year-old son ride the e-motorcyle as he did not have a license for the vehicle.
During the June incident, Mejer called the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to report a neighbor who had allegedly been taking photos of her son riding the vehicle and posting them online to complain about the boy’s behavior.
When deputies arrived, they say they spent 30 minutes explaining to Mejer that her son was riding the e-motorcycle illegally and made clear that if he continued she would face charges for allowing him to ride the bike.
“We have her on body-worn camera talking about and understanding the dangers and the illegality of this particular vehicle,” Spitzer told ABC 7.
He said he hopes this case sends a message to parents about the dangers of e-bikes and e-motorcycles.
“Either they’re going to hate me for doing this, saying, ‘Why the heck would you go after a parent when this is just their kids’ activity?’ Or they’re gonna say, ‘We better really research and thoroughly understand the kinds of motor vehicles we’re providing to our kids,'” Spitzer said. “A lot of times prosecutors have to bring these kinds of test cases, if you will, to make sure other prosecutors throughout the country understand that this is the direction we need to go.”
Mejer is the third parent in Orange County to be charged with illegally allowing their children to ride an e-motorcycle.
“Parents who buy their child an E-motorcycle and let them ride them illegally or help modify e-Bikes to transform them into E-motorcycles are handing their children a loaded weapon – and those parents are going to be prosecuted. That is not a threat. That is a promise,” Spitzer said in a press statement.
As Mejer prepares for court, Ashman is fighting to stay alive.
A GoFundMe has been established for him and has already collected nearly $90,000.
According to the page, Ashman was a combat pilot in Vietnam as well as a father, husband, and grandfather.
It describes Ashman as being in “extremely difficult physical shape” following the crash.
“This 81-year-old man survived flying combat missions in Vietnam protecting freedom and now he is clinging to life because a mother refused to parent her child and he was run over in the street by a vehicle that should have never been on the road,” Spitzer said.
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