Six months before he died, 13-year-old Benson Nguyen broke his leg riding an electric vehicle. According to Orange County prosecutors, the next machine his father bought him was faster and more powerful.
That machine was an E-Ride Pro SS 2.0, and on the night of May 7, Benson was riding it on Magnolia Street near Larson Avenue in Garden Grove when he lost control just before 10 p.m., the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said. He hit the raised center divider, was thrown from the bike and struck a concrete light pole. He died at UCI Medical Center.
On Oct. 20, the district attorney announced charges against both of his parents. Vu Thanh Nguyen, 56, of Santa Ana, is charged with one felony count of child endangerment and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Prosecutors say he faces up to six years in state prison if convicted on all counts. Hong Cuc Thi Nguyen, 49, also of Santa Ana, is charged with one misdemeanor count of child endangerment, which carries up to a year in county jail. The charges are allegations, and both parents are presumed innocent.
The core of the case against the father, as prosecutors describe it, is the sequence. The DA’s office says he bought the more powerful E-Moto despite multiple warnings about his son’s reckless riding and after the boy had been repeatedly injured on a different electric vehicle, including the broken leg. The office’s announcement does not say who issued those warnings or when.
What the family-tracking app showed
The 43 mph figure didn’t come from a radar gun. According to prosecutors, Benson’s Life360 location-sharing app showed the E-Moto traveling at 43 mph when he lost control.
Prosecutors say that shortly before the crash, Benson was seen speeding, running red lights and doing wheelies. The office also says he had posted numerous videos to TikTok and Instagram showing himself doing wheelies and “leg switches” on the bike. The Auto Wire has not independently reviewed those videos.
Not a bicycle under any California definition
Forty-three mph wasn’t the bike’s limit. The DA says the SS 2.0 tops out around 40 mph in its “Eco” mode and 62 mph in “Sport.” One dealer’s listing rates its 72-volt motor at 5 kilowatts continuous and 12 kilowatts peak, and notes that the vehicle is sold for off-road use only unless otherwise stated.
California’s electric bicycle definition caps the motor at 750 watts and requires operable pedals. The DA’s office says a bike that exceeds that power, can go faster than 20 mph on motor power alone, or lacks working pedals isn’t an e-bike at all. By that dealer’s figures, the SS 2.0’s peak output is 16 times the e-bike limit.
Prosecutors classify the bike as a motor-driven cycle under Vehicle Code Section 405 or a motorcycle under Section 400. Either way, riding it on a public street requires a motorcycle license, DMV registration, a license plate, insurance and full motorcycle equipment. Without those, the DA says, the only legal places to ride it are private property and properly designated off-highway vehicle areas. The office notes that children under 16 are legally barred from riding E-Motos at all.
Orange County is now charging parents as a matter of policy
The Nguyen case is being handled by the DA’s RIDE SAFELY unit, which District Attorney Todd Spitzer created in May, the same month Benson died. The unit reviews potential charges against juvenile riders and adults, including parents who knowingly let their children ride E-Motos illegally.
Spitzer acknowledged the family’s loss in announcing the charges, then argued that it doesn’t settle the legal question. “Grief does not erase the need for accountability,” he said.
According to the office, it has filed child endangerment and related charges against 10 parents since January for allowing their children to ride E-Motos illegally. The most serious is an involuntary manslaughter case against a mother whose 14-year-old son, prosecutors say, hit and killed an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran in Lake Forest while riding an E-Moto she had been repeatedly warned was illegal.
The DA also cites state crash data from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System showing that children ages 11 to 14 account for 61.7% of E-Moto crashes, even though none of them can legally ride one. The office says E-Bike and E-Moto injuries are now the leading reason Orange County children end up in the emergency room.
What happens next
Senior Deputy District Attorney Noor Hasan is prosecuting the case, No. 26WF4151. The DA’s full release does not list an arraignment date or identify attorneys for either parent. State e-bike safety resources referenced by the DA are collected at gosafelyca.org.
Under California law, the vehicle Benson Nguyen was riding was never a bicycle. The question now before an Orange County court is what his parents understood about that, and what they chose to do about it.
If your kid rides something with an electric motor, do you know whether California would call it an e-bike or a motorcycle?
Top photo: File photo of a Sur-Ron electric dirt bike, a similar type of e-moto; not the vehicle involved in the Garden Grove crash. Photo: Ivan Radic / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
