PAEDIATRICIAN Dr John Boulton has said 21-month-old Ella Mahon is lucky to be alive after she was hit by an e-bike at Honeysuckle on Sunday.
The incident came just days after Dr Boulton predicted e-scooters and 'fat bikes' were a 'catastrophe waiting to happen'.
"She's very lucky not to have been killed actually, because that sort of head injury in a child, well, in anybody, but a little girl of one-and-a-half to 2 with her head at the height where a wheel would hit straight on, it wouldn't hit her leg it would hit her head," he said.
Dr Boulton said 'fat bike' riders should be treated like motorcyclists, required to have a licence, travel on the road and display number plates.
He said Honeysuckle was "basically a racetrack now" and said the speeds riders were travelling at were "completely reckless".
"Anybody who has seen that photograph of that poor little toddler, it's just appalling, imagine you were the mum, dad or granddad of the child," he said.
"I'd be absolutely furious about it."
Dr Boulton said he believes traffic calming measures should be put in place at Honeysuckle to protect children and their families.
Ella's mother Alyce said her daughter was recovering well after the incident, which left her with significant swelling and bruising around her eye along with a large scrape on her forehead.
"She's actually doing better than what I've been doing, because I have to look at her little face," Ms Mahon said.
"The last thing we want is for it to happen to someone else this weekend, and they're not as lucky as Ella."
Ms Mahon said something needed to be done to make the area safe, whether that was banning e-bikes from the path or fencing the pirate ship playground at Honeysuckle.
"It's the grounds of Newcastle council, it's them that actually have to act to put something in place," she said.
"They need to do something about it ... there's a bike track on the other side of the apartments that is purely for bikes, why are they even riding on a shared pathway and then going that fast?
"From the comments we're getting it's not just that park, it's everywhere, just slow down."
E-scooters are illegal in public areas, while electronically power-assisted bikes have a wattage limit and must cut off when the cyclist reaches 25 kilometres per hour or stops pedalling at a speed more than 6 kilometres per hour.
A City of Newcastle spokesman said the "wide paths" at Honeysuckle were designed and built by the state government in line with current standards and best practice to allow space for all users.
"Narrower sections, including temporary shared paths west of Cottage Creek between Honeysuckle and Maryville, are marked to assist with managing use within a narrower path environment," he said.
"Under NSW Government regulations, e-bikes are legally allowed to provide electrical assistance up to 25kmh and are generally treated exactly the same as other bicycles.
"However, several commercially available models can achieve speeds in excess of 50kmh which cannot legally be used on public land in NSW."
He said personal e-scooters remain illegal on roads, road-related areas and public spaces including footpaths, shared paths and bike lanes.
"Enforcement of regulations relating to moving vehicles, including bicycles, is a matter for NSW Police."
Newcastle council did not answer questions about how many complaints it had received regarding e-bikes and e-scooters across the local government area or what steps, if any, it is taking to make shared paths safer for pedestrians, particularly at Honeysuckle.
In the wake of Ella's accident, Newcastle parents have shared their own fears about e-bikes and e-scooters.
Islington resident Shannon Wappet regularly takes her 18-month-old daughter Rooney to the pirate ship playground at Honeysuckle.
Ms Wappet said there had been multiple occasions where she had been startled by the speed of someone passing by while her daughter ran around the playground.
"The silence of the e-bikes and e-scooters is unsettling, especially with the speed they travel," she said.
"I just don't understand how they're allowed to travel so quickly on a common path like that.
"It's like having motorbikes flying by and I hate to think about a worst case scenario when one collides with a child, and for them to be so silent just increases the danger."
Ms Wappet said she worries about the day her daughter starts riding a bike or scooter of her own.
"It feels so dangerous to think of her on the same path as something travelling that quickly," she said.
Ms Wappet said she would like to see signage installed near the park to indicate that it is a child's play area, along with fencing around the playground which would also lessen the risks posed by the water nearby.
NSW Police confirmed they had spoken with the 40-year-old man involved in Ella's incident but no charges had been laid.
