Mother charged after teen son allegedly hits and injures 81-year-old veteran while riding e-motorcycle
An Orange County, California, mother has been arrested and charged with child endangerment and accessory after the fact to a crime after her 14-year-old child allegedly hit an 81-year-old veteran while riding an e-motorcycle.
A Wednesday press release from the Orange County District Attorney's Office detailed the allegations against Tommi Jo Mejer, after authorities say she had been "repeatedly warned" of the risk involved with her son riding the e-motorcycle.
According to the release, on April 16, 2026, sheriffs responded to a pedestrian hit by an e-motorcycle.
"The victim, later identified as an 81-year-old substitute teacher and captain in the United States Marine Corps who flew combat missions in Vietnam, was critically injured after being hit by a teenage boy doing wheelies in the middle of the street," read the release.
The e-motorcycle rider fled the scene, according to the release.
Mejer allegedly told authorities investigating the crash that neither she nor her son owned or had access to a Surron, the type of e-motorcycle used in the collision.
The release noted the district attorney could not name the juvenile involved or discuss the details of the investigation involving the juvenile.
According to the release, months earlier, in June 2025, Mejer had contacted the Orange County Sheriff's Department "to complain that someone was posting pictures of her then-13-year-old son riding an e-motorcycle."
According to the DA, a nearly 30-minute interaction ensued, in which Mejer, "admitted that she purchased her son a Surron e-motorcycle and knew that he drove it recklessly."
In the conversation, which the DA says was captured on body cameras, Mejer was warned that "she could face potential criminal charges if she continued to allow him to ride the e-motorcycle, which he could not legally ride."
Mejer was arrested on Tuesday and charged with felony counts of child endangerment and accessory after the fact to a crime, as well as misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, loaning a motor vehicle to an unlicensed driver and providing false information to a peace officer.
"She faces a maximum sentence of six years and eight months in state prison if convicted on all counts," the release notes.
The release states that "riders of Class 3 e-motorcycles must be 16 years of age and possess a motorcycle license" and identifies the model of Surron used in the crash requires a license, DMV registration and more.
The model of bike in question, which is "marketed as an off-road e-motorcycle," can reach speeds of up to 58 miles per hour and "is 16 times more powerful than what is legally allowed for an e-bike," according to the district attorney's office.
The release also distinguishes between an electric bikes, which have three classes, and an electric motorcycle, saying that the determination comes down to motor strength and speed.
"Parents who buy their child an e-motorcycle and let them ride them illegally or help modify e-bikes to transform them into e-motorcycles are handing their children a loaded weapon – and those parents are going to be prosecuted. That is not a threat. That is a promise," Todd Spitzer, Orange County District Attorney, said in the release.
He continued, "This 81-year-old man survived flying combat missions in Vietnam protecting freedom and now he is clinging to life because a mother refused to parent her child and he was run over in the street by a vehicle that should have never been on the road."
"There is absolutely no reason that an unlicensed, untrained child with no concept of the rules of the road should be riding a motorcycle that can go up to nearly 60 miles per hour next to cars on a public street and think that by some miracle they are going to be safe," Spitzer added.
It was not immediately clear whether Mejer had retained an attorney.
ABC News has reached out to Surron for comment.
