A teenage boy is dead and another seriously injured after an e-bike they were riding ran a red light and hit two cars in Melbourne’s outer north-east on Wednesday.

The 15-year-old was a passenger on the bike when it crashed on the corner of Findon and Plenty roads in South Morang at 5.30pm on Wednesday. He was treated for his injuries but died at the scene.

Police at the scene of a fatal e-bike and car crash in South Morang on Wednesday night.© Nine

Road Policing Acting Assistant Commissioner Justin Goldsmith said the teen wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time.

The collision also badly injured a 17-year-old boy who was behind the handlebars of the e-bike, but who was wearing a helmet. As of Thursday morning, he remains in the Austin Hospital in a serious but stable condition with lower-body injuries.

After the e-bike hit the car, it then ran into a second car, police said. Both motorists stopped at the scene.

“You think of these two people who are involved in the collision last night, not physically injured, but significantly psychologically injured. So it has a massive effect on our community across the board,” Goldsmith said.

He said the injured boy would be interviewed after his discharge from hospital, and potentially faced serious charges, including culpable driving and dangerous riding causing death.

Goldsmith also said the injured boy was unlicensed, and that the prevalence of e-bikes was a nationwide issue, adding that police stations were inundated with calls about “ride-outs where they’re riding in mass numbers” across the state.

“It was an illegal motorcycle that is incapable of being registered in Victoria because it doesn’t fit the safety category to be registered in Victoria,” he said. “[It] is capable of going 90km/h, and it’s in the hands of children, and there are, unfortunately, a lot of them on the market.”

In Victoria, a bike with a motor must have working pedals and a maximum power output of 250 watts (not capable of exceeding 25km/h) to be considered legal. Goldsmith said the bike involved in the South Morang crash had its pedals removed.

“They’re being imported from other countries quite often [and] they don’t fit the criteria to be registered in Victoria,” he said. “And certainly since the COVID lockdown years, the growth has been enormous.”

Goldsmith said the state government was looking at beefing up laws around e-bikes. Spring Street began restricting converted e-bikes on trains and within ticketed areas after a review last year.

Police tape across the road where a fatal e-bike crash occurred.© Nine News

The prevalence of e-bikes also prompted NSW and Queensland to consider stricter regulations. But Goldsmith said new laws and their enforcement could only go so far in curbing the problem, and parents had an equally significant part to play.

“If it is a motorcycle that is unregistered, we can absolutely enforce. But the sheer volumes make it really difficult for Victoria Police to get a handle on it,” Goldsmith said.

“I would ask all parents to be vigilant about the fact that this is not a fun toy. Some of these modified motorcycles, and the ones that cannot be registered for safety reasons, pose an enormous risk to their children. But you can avoid it.”

City of Whittlesea mayor Lawrie Cox said the phenomenon of kids on unregistered bikes without helmets “playing chicken with cars” was becoming increasingly common in the area.

“We’re sincerely wishing the family our condolences for the loss of their child,” he said, adding that before Wednesday he had heard of injuries to animals and people in the area when bikes were ridden too fast on footpaths.

The road policing operation across the Anzac Day weekend will be the third high-visibility operation police have undertaken in April alone.

“Despite having a strong presence throughout the month of April, unfortunately, we’re in the middle of a significant road trauma spike, and unfortunately and tragically, we’ve had 14 lives lost in the last 11 days,” Goldsmith said.

There have been 82 lives lost on Victorian roads in 2026.