Do not let a child under 12 ride a bicycle on the road, or under 16 ride an e-bike on the road: if they hit someone, parents pay; if they are hit, they may still bear a share

You must be 12 to ride a bicycle on the road, and 16 to ride an e-bike. A 14-year-old scanned their mother’s code for a shared e-bike, hit someone into grade-10 disability, and the court ordered the parents to pay about 187000 yuan. An under-age child who is hit — even when the other side is fully at fault — has still been ordered by courts to bear a share.

Cost

No money, but you need another way to get to school — parent pickup, bus, or walking. The hard part is classmates all riding and the child pushing back.

Benefit

Article 72 of the Implementation Regulations of the Road Traffic Safety Law (道路交通安全法实施条例) says that on roads “driving a bicycle or tricycle requires full age 12.” The same article says “driving an electric bicycle or a motorized wheelchair for persons with disabilities requires full age 16.” Violation under Article 89 of the Road Traffic Safety Law (道路交通安全法) means a warning or a fine of 5 to 50 yuan; refusing the fine can mean the vehicle is seized. The fine is small; what matters is the bill after a crash. Article 1188 of the Civil Code (民法典) says when a minor causes harm to another, the guardian bears tort liability. If the child has their own property, pay from that first; any shortfall the guardian pays. Lianjiang County Court in Fujian decided one case. In May 2022, a child just turned 14 used the mother’s account to scan and rent a shared e-bike. They hit a person on an e-bike; the other side had grade-10 disability, and traffic police found the child fully at fault. The rental firm and insurer said the user agreement requires age 16 or above, so the child was not a lawful rider and they would not pay. The court ordered the child’s parents to pay about 187000 yuan (exact figure 187017.83 yuan). Being hit while under age also costs. A Beijing judge wrote up a case: a 10-year-old riding a bicycle after school was hit by an e-bike into grade-10 disability; traffic police found the other side fully at fault. Article 1173 of the Civil Code says if the injured party was at fault for the harm, the tortfeasor’s liability may be reduced. On that basis the court found the child under 12 on the road and the guardian failing to stop it, and ordered the child’s side to bear a share of the loss. Injuries can also be worse. An Israeli trauma center admitted 337 children with traffic injuries from 2014 to 2016. Among those hurt on e-bikes, brain injury was 13%; on ordinary bikes, 3%. After other factors were included, the chance of more severe injury was about 2.6 times that of ordinary bikes (OR 2.56, 95% CI 1.1–5.88, credible range) (nationwide / Fujian / Beijing / Israel)

Notes

Grade B because the statutes and both judgments were checked, but injury figures come from one hospital abroad, and no domestic age-broken casualty stats were found. The Lianjiang case is a reprint from a justice-bureau legal-education column; the judgment text was not found. Benefit is set large by the money measure using that case’s 187000 yuan award — not every crash pays that much. Shared e-bike user agreements also require age 16 or above; do not give your account to a child to scan. Once of age, still wear a helmet — see Section 1, item 2 (wear a helmet and buckle it) and Section 22, item 12 (wear a helmet when mountain biking). Main beneficiaries are children; those who pay are the parents.

Sources · 5

1. 国务院 (2017 年修订). 道路交通安全法实施条例（第七十二条）. flk.npc.gov.cn/detail?id=ff8080816f3cbb3c016f…
2. 全国人大常委会 (2021 年修正). 道路交通安全法（第八十九条）. flk.npc.gov.cn/detail?id=ff8081817ab231eb017a…
3. 全国人大 (2020). 民法典（第一千一百七十三、一千一百八十八条）. flk.npc.gov.cn/detail?id=ff808081729d1efe0172…
4. 广州市司法局 (2024-11-28). 14岁孩子骑共享电动车，竟把人撞致十级伤残……（转载央视网等）. sfj.gz.gov.cn/ztlm/fzxc/yasf/content/post_991…（网页存档 web.archive.org/web/20250421103222/https://sf…）；秦鹏博 (2024-08-29). “半大孩子”怎样骑行才安全又合规. 北京政法网（来源京法网事）. bj148.org/123/202408/t20240829_1667638.html
5. Zmora O, Peleg K, Klein Y (2019). Pediatric electric bicycle injuries and comparison to other pediatric traffic injuries. Traffic Injury Prevention, 20(5), 540-543. doi.org/10.1080/15389588.2019.1608361