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New South Wales authorities have levied a penalty against an US-based online influencer and served two traffic infringement notices for reported reckless operation after a swarm of e-bike riders converged on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during peak-hour traffic on Tuesday.

The Event: A Prohibited Ride

A group of approximately 40 people riding electric bikes and motorbikes proceeded along the primary roadway of the bridge, where cycling is prohibited. The assembly then turned around and traveled through the downtown area and Haymarket.

"There was potential for people to be injured and killed," stated a senior police official David Driver on the following day.

Police indicated they did not immediately pursue the riders due to safety concerns but instead located the group at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the Botanic Gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Influencer

On Saturday, police stated they had issued the US social media influencer who goes by the influencer, 26, with two traffic infringement notices for careless operation (with no death or previous bodily harm), carrying a fine of $562 and three demerit points each, connected to the bridge incident. Officials noted that inquiries were continuing.

The personality reportedly has more than 3.4m followers on YouTube and over 1.2m on the social media app.

Influencer's Comments

The online figure spoke with a local publication this week following the event spread rapidly on news sites and social media, stating he regretted giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was one of the safest ride-outs I’ve ever seen," he told the publication. "I am a visitor here, and I intend to come here respecting the rules and standards of the city. So when I decided to do a meet and greet it was not meant to include a ride-out, it was just to say hi under the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, it was my fault we found ourselves on the bridge and I had two choices: either the group rides the full length of the bridge and comes back, which is a crime. Or we turn around, basically, before we’re on the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to go back."

National Debate on Electric Bike Rules

The increase of electric bicycles on streets across the country has prompted increasing demands for stricter rules. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, commented that illegal ebikes were a "complete hazard on the road."

"Kids have done reckless acts on bikes since the invention of the penny-farthing [but] the injuries that are coming into our ERs are absolutely devastating," he said. "We’ve got to ensure we prevent these things coming into the country [and] officers are granted the authority to crack down, to take them away, to destroy them, to dispose of them."

NSW recorded 226 injuries associated with ebikes in the previous year. However, in the initial half of the following year, that figure surged to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four deaths.