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NSW police have levied a penalty against an American social media personality and handed out two traffic infringement notices for alleged reckless operation following a large group of e-bike riders converged on the famous Sydney landmark during peak-hour traffic on Tuesday.

The Event: An Illegal Gathering

A gathering of around 40 people riding e-bikes and motorcycles proceeded along the primary roadway of the bridge, where cycling is prohibited. The riders then turned around and rode through the city’s CBD and a nearby district.

"There was a risk of people to be injured and killed," remarked a senior police official David Driver on the following day.

Law enforcement said they did not chase right away the group due to safety concerns but instead located the group at a scenic Sydney lookout near the city gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Influencer

Later in the week, police announced they had served the American online personality known as Sur Ronster, 26, with two traffic infringement notices for negligent driving (not involving death or prior injury), with a penalty of $562 and penalty points per notice, connected to the bridge ride-out. They added that the investigation is ongoing.

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

Influencer's Comments

The content creator gave comments to a local publication this week following the event spread rapidly on news sites and social media, saying he was sorry for giving "bike life" a bad reputation.

"I accept the blame. That was among the safest ride-outs I’ve ever seen," he told the publication. "I’m coming here as a guest, so I’m going to come here respecting the laws and norms of the city. When I decided to do a meet and greet it was not meant to include a group ride, it was just to greet people under the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, I am to blame we ended up on the bridge and I had a decision to make: either the group rides the full length of the bridge and comes back, which is a crime. Or we reverse, basically, before we’re on the bridge. I chose at the time to turn around."

National Debate on Electric Bike Rules

The increase of electric bicycles on streets across the country has prompted growing calls for regulation. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, recently said that illegal ebikes were a "complete hazard on the road."

"Kids have done stupid things on bikes ever since the penny-farthing [but] the injuries that are presenting at our hospital emergency departments are absolutely devastating," he stated. "We’ve got to ensure we prevent these things coming into the country [and] officers are given the powers to take strong action, to confiscate them, to crush them, to destroy them."

NSW reported 226 injuries associated with ebikes in the previous year. However, in the initial half of the following year, that figure surged to 233 injuries plus four fatalities.