A MAN riding an electric bike in Dublin has died after crashing into a pole.
Gardaí said the cyclist, who was in his forties, struck the pole at Sallymount Avenue in Ranelagh at around 8.30pm on Monday.
He was taken to hospital in a critical condition but was later pronounced dead,
Gardaí have appealed for witnesses to contact them, particularly anyone with camera footage, who were travelling in the Baggot Street area to the Sallymount Avenue area between 7.45pm and 8.30pm on Monday.
It is understood the man's death may be one of the first electric bike fatalities in the Republic.
Deaths on such vehicles in the north also appear to be relatively uncommon.
PSNI and Garda statistics do not appear to differentiate between e-bike related deaths and pedal bike fatalities.
In July, a cyclist on an electric bike in Oxford died after colliding with a metal pole. The man, who was in his thirties, suffered serious life-threatening injuries and later died in hospital.
Electric bikes, sometimes known as an e-bike, are motor assisted pedal bikes, which have soared in popularity in recent years with around 50,000 sold each year in the UK.
But there have been safety concerns around the motorised bicycles with an increasing number of cyclists becoming victims of collisions on electric bikes.
There have been some suggestions that the accident risk, particularly for elderly cyclists, is higher when riding an electric bike than on a conventional bike.
