Safety Concerns Grow After Couple Struck by Dirt Bike

A Coconut Grove couple was hospitalized with severe injuries earlier this month after being struck by a teenager on an electric dirt bike near Kennedy Park. The couple says it may take them months to recover.

A Coconut Grove couple was walking home along South Bayshore Drive on a Sunday morning this month when they were struck from behind and severely injured by a teenager riding an electric dirt bike near the south entrance to Kennedy Park.

The 15-year-old boy lost control of the bike and slid into Hank Klein and his wife Lisa Sloat, according to a Miami Police report, knocking them to the ground. 

Klein, 81, hit his head and was knocked out. He suffered a head wound and a brain bleed. Sloat, 76, crumpled under the force of the crash, fracturing her ankle.  

“We were walking home from Starbucks and all of a sudden, we are on the ground. I mean, like that,” Sloat told the Spotlight.

Three weeks later, they still haven’t made it home. They talk to each other by phone from separate rooms at Mercy Hospital’s rehab center, where they both are undergoing intense therapy. Their lives have been upended, and laced with a new uncertainty.  

“We are not spring chickens, but we are active, physically fit, and now we are going to need help. I don’t know for how long,” Sloat said. “We’re progressing, but battered.”

The crash report prepared by Miami Police faults the boy, a resident of Kendall, for failing to yield the right of way, but no charges have been filed. The report says “citations” are pending. The Spotlight is not naming the boy because of his age.

The couple, residents of Grove Isle who have been active for years socially and philanthropically, are hoping to go home this weekend, a full three weeks after the Jan. 11 accident, with more therapy ahead and home health aides to ease the transition.

“We can’t do anything by ourselves,” Sloat said. 

Sloat is sporting a cast on her lower leg, and can’t put any weight on her foot. Klein suffered a head wound that doctors closed with 12 staples. He was placed under watch and kept in ICU for two days.

“I have a little bit of progress every day,” Klein said. “I think it’s going to take four months for me to get back to where I was.”

Both say they are happy with the care they have received at Mercy Hospital, but they have mixed feelings about the cause of their misery.

“I’m not happy about this. I have a lot of anger at the kid. Lisa doesn’t have it,” Klein said. He said he plans to write to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins about the dangers these bikes pose to pedestrians.

“That’s what I’m going to do. That’s going to be my focus,” he said. “I’m very lucky that I was in good shape. It could have killed me.”

Police interviewed Sloat at the scene and again at the hospital. She said she saw the boy and the bike after the accident, but can’t be sure what type of bike was involved.

The crash report describes the bike as a Surron 750-watt dirt bike but doesn’t list a model. Surron dirt bikes are typically more powerful than that, while bikes with an electric motor of less than 750 watts and pedals are considered to be e-bikes. 

Mike Vega, a Miami Police public information officer, said the bike in question was not street legal, and did not have pedals. On the crash report, the “vehicle body type” is listed as “motorcycle.” 

Vega said the dirt bike was not registered, and the boy was not licensed. He declined to comment on whether the boy might face charges, saying the “case is still open.”

Sloat, who never lost consciousness, suspects the boy may have been performing a trick – popping a wheelie, perhaps – immediately before the accident. She remembers an older man yelling at the boy after the crash, asking “Why did you try the trick?”

“I knew he was doing a trick because I heard the guy yell,” Sloat told the Spotlight.

The crash report makes no mention of a “trick.” Instead, the report says the boy was riding on the shoulder of the road and was not distracted. Conditions were clear, but the pavement was wet. The report says a school bus was involved, but doesn’t explain how. 

The portion of South Bayshore Drive where the accident occurred is often shared by pedestrians and bike riders under crowded conditions, especially on weekends.

Mary Munroe Seabrook, co-founder of the Friends of the Commodore Trail (which includes the right of way where the accident occurred) and an advocate for bike and pedestrian safety, says the accident underscores the need for better traffic engineering.

“It really comes down to road design,” she said. She would like to see bicycle and pedestrian traffic separated along that stretch of South Bayshore Drive. 

“It’s achievable,” she said. “And we are all waiting. What’s it going to take – a death?”

If you are walking northbound on the east side of the road, as Klein and Sloat were, you need to cross a road that leads to the U.S. Sailing Center and then thread a narrow gate (or walk around it) to enter the park.

Klein and Sloat were struck just before they entered the park, and fell into a puddle.

“There are lot of people walking along there,” Sloat said. “This is one example of what can happen in a minute, and this was Sunday morning.”  

Florida law treats electric bikes the same as ordinary bikes, giving riders the same rights and responsibilities, but local governments can adopt stricter rules to govern how and where they can be ridden. 

The rules for electronic dirt bikes are different. Registration is typically required, and they are prohibited on public roads, sidewalks and bike paths, according to information provided by Vega.  

There are three classes of e-bikes under Florida law, and they all have pedals. Surron dirt bikes do not, but pedals can be added.

The Key Biscayne Village Council voted to ban e-bikes and e-scooters on local streets after a woman was struck and killed in February 2024 by a 12-year-old on an e-bike.   

A year and a half later, Fabian Moses was biking with his wife on the Rickenbacker Causeway when he was struck from behind by a 14-year-old boy on an electric dirt bike.

Moses, 54, was thrown from his bike and died from his injuries. Police charged the boy with a third-degree felony for operating a vehicle without a license and causing death or serious injury.

Read More: 14-year-old Arrested in Causeway Bike Death

Two months later, Miami Police Chief Manny Morales told Grove residents that his department was making traffic enforcement a priority. As an example, Morales pointed to Operation Ride, a citywide effort to prevent the improper use of two-wheeled vehicles.

Read More: More Traffic Enforcement Ahead, Miami Police Chief Says

Asked if that enhanced enforcement had begun in the Grove or made a difference, the Miami Police commander for Coconut Grove, Freddie Cruz, said:

“Our officers are proactive with traffic enforcement throughout the area, particularly on South Bayshore Drive,” Cruz said. The commander initially told the Spotlight he had seen a decrease in e-bikes in Coconut Grove – “I can tell you I have seen a decrease in those kinds of bikes” – but then walked back those comments when asked if residents would see a difference. “Don’t quote me on that,” he said. “It definitely is a concern. We will continue to do our part and where we see violations, we will enforce,” Cruz said, adding, “The parents need to do their part, and educate their kids.”

Concern over e-bikes has reached Tallahassee as well, where proposed legislation (SB 382) would impose a 10-mph speed limit on e-bikes operated on a sidewalk or other areas designated for pedestrians, when pedestrians are within 50 feet.

The boy who struck Klein and Sloat was traveling at 20 miles-per-hour when he lost control of his bike, according to the official crash report.

In a message to the Spotlight on Thursday, Sloat said the couple would support any effort to protect pedestrians, although it’s not clear whether those efforts would have made a difference in their case, if the boy was riding a dirt bike and not an e-bike.

“We certainly want to support all efforts to ensure electric bikes and scooters are regulated (or banned) so no one else ends up like us!” she wrote.

As for the road ahead, an attorney for the couple said they will seek compensation for their injuries, although no lawsuit has been filed to date.

“We are pursuing a claim, we are pursuing compensation for their damages,” said Coral Gables attorney Michael Goldfarb. He said it’s too early to estimate those damages.

“It could take more than four months for them to recover,” Goldfarb told the Spotlight. “I feel awful for them.”