Mother charged after teen on e-motorcycle critically injures 81-year-old man

Orange County prosecutors have charged a 50-year-old Aliso Viejo mother after her 14-year-old son allegedly struck and critically injured an 81-year-old man while riding a Surron Ultra Bee e-motorcycle through a Lake Forest neighborhood.

The crash happened around 4 p.m. on April 16 at Toledo Way and Ridge Route Drive, near El Toro High School. Prosecutors say the teen was doing wheelies in the middle of the street when he hit Ed Ashman, a retired Marine Corps captain and substitute teacher who flew combat missions in Vietnam. Ashman remains hospitalized in critical condition and underwent surgery on April 19.

Authorities say the teen fled after the collision. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office said the vehicle could reach 58 mph, a speed that underscores why prosecutors are treating the case as more than a traffic matter. Tommi Jo Mejer was arrested on April 21 at the Lamoreaux Justice Center in Orange and now faces one felony count each of child endangerment and accessory after the fact to a crime, along with 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. If convicted on all counts, she faces up to six years and eight months in state prison.

The case turns on prosecutors’ claim that Mejer had already been warned. According to the district attorney, deputies spent nearly 30 minutes in June 2025 telling her the e-motorcycle was illegal for her son to ride and warning that she could face criminal charges if she allowed it to continue. Investigators also say body-camera footage captured Mejer later acknowledging that she had purchased the vehicle and knew her son drove it recklessly, even though she allegedly denied owning the Surron when questioned after the hit-and-run.

The prosecution reflects a broader push in Orange County, where officials say this is the third child-endangerment case filed since January against parents who allowed children to illegally ride e-motorcycles. One separate case in Yorba Linda involved a 12-year-old boy riding a modified e-motorcycle that could reach 60 mph.

The legal gap is clear. California guidance treats off-highway electric motorcycles as vehicles for off-road use on lands open to the public, not ordinary streets, while motorcycles used on-road require registration, insurance and a valid motorcycle license. In practice, high-powered electric bikes and e-motorcycles can fall between bicycle rules and motor-vehicle rules until a crash forces the issue. In this case, prosecutors are putting parental responsibility at the center of enforcement.