Two boys, 11 and 12 years old, on an electric dirt bike were seriously injured when they cut a car off and were struck Thursday afternoon in southwest Edmonton, police said. The boys were in the far left turning lane on Windermere Boulevard, and instead of turning left onto Terwillegar Drive when the advance signal turned green, they went straight and were hit by a Ford Fusion making the turn from the wider turning lane. The intersection in question is undergoing construction, making a busy area slightly more complicated. Mysha Hehn was driving through that intersection at the time of the crash. She watched what happened in her rearview mirror. “I saw these two kids on a bike, and I was just like, ‘Oh my God, those are kids!’ ... I saw the bike tip over, and then everybody just stopped,” she recalled. “My son is that age. Honestly, it was terrifying.” EMS responded at 2:30 p.m. and took the boys to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries. The driver of the car stayed on scene and was not injured. The 11-year-old boy was driving the dirt bike, police said. The crash is under investigation and speed or alcohol are not being considered as factors. Police told CTV News Edmonton one of the boys was wearing a bicycle helmet. The other was not wearing a helmet of any kind. Hehn says her 10-year-old son had been “begging” for an electric scooter or bike. “The thing is, we as parents can’t be there 24/7. And kids are so impulsive. They make terrible decisions sometimes. It’s just not worth it for me.” The use of electric dirt bikes on public roadways is illegal in Alberta. Norquest criminologist Dan Jones says ticketing requires an officer to be in the right place at the right time as privately owned electric scooters and dirtbikes are only getting faster and more common, in his opinion. “What is the role of police in this? Is it a bylaw issue? Should we have peace officers doing this? I’ve never seen anyone stop them,” he said. In a statement on Friday, an Alberta Transportation spokesperson said, “Alberta is considering a provincial framework to support the safe and consistent use of personal micromobility devices, such as e-scooters and similar small devices, where municipalities enforce and choose to allow them.”
