The June 12 Mirror front-page headline “E-bikes, vandalism spurring concerns in Duncansville” was an appropriate Page 1 introduction to the article to which it referred.

However, the appropriate headline for an opinion page editorial related to that article requires more bluntness: “E-bikes, vandalism demanding persistent action in Duncansville” — and, actually, in every other community experiencing the same problems.

If the proverbial blind eye is employed in relation to the problems in question, in Blair or anywhere else, the problems have the likelihood of worsening. And, understand the concerns in communities without a municipal police department — having to depend on the state police, who already have more than enough to do in their regular enforcement and protection responsibilities and cannot and should not be expected to “chew up” important police time by having to conduct e-bike investigations to put an end to problems for which other solutions exist.

Nevertheless, granted, there are times when state police intervention might not be avoidable, even if only to deliver the stern message that certain conduct, already prohibited by law, will not be tolerated.

Back to Duncansville and the dangers and potential consequences that have been in play there, culminating in the June 12 Mirror article and this editorial.

The situation is much more serious than what some people might consider it to be as they pooh-pooh efforts and the authorities who are seeking to get the situation under control. Other communities should pay attention, including, nearby, a couple municipalities in Bedford County, where evolving situations should be shut down before they grow into something imitating Duncansville’s.

There is nothing wrong with e-bikes if they are operated responsibly and lawfully; the trouble is, in some cases they are not and that needs to be rectified.

As reported in the June 12 article, some residents attending a June 10 Duncansville Borough Council meeting voiced concerns about individuals who they said had been riding electric bicycles and scooters at night, disturbing people who live nearby.

Those residents also alleged that young adolescents had been damaging or destroying private property.

Borough Manager Rodney Estep, who also is Duncansville’s police chief, told people at the meeting that he had engaged in 12 interactions with young people riding on e-bikes — first to educate those young people about laws related to riding the bikes and, second, about the consequences tied to riding an e-bike while underage.

To crack down on underage e-bike usage, Estep said, he even had talked with some parents about the laws applicable to such riding, hoping those parents would, by their help, play a part in someday preventing an accident or worse.

Consider some possible, troubling scenarios:

≥ An e-bike rider losing control of his or her speeding bike and crashing into a moving vehicle, losing his or her life.

≥ An e-bike rider entering vehicle traffic and causing an accident that claims the life of an innocent motorist and, perhaps, a passenger in that motorist’s vehicle.

≥ An elderly motorist, so traumatized by the instant in which his or her vehicle is involved in an accident with a speeding e-bike, suffers a fatal cardiac episode.

And, there are myriad other possible scenarios, none of them “pretty.”

The point is that such situations must be prevented and they are preventable, if responsibility, common sense and a sense of maturity prevail.

And, yes, parents are an important component of the prevention factor who must be willing to do their part.

Persistence and commitment to enforcing applicable laws will continue to be the key.

Don’t wait until floral arrangements start arriving to honor someone who should not have been a victim.