Paul Bass Photos
Sgt. Derek Werner (above) with signs for posting at gas stations, including Whalley Exxon, where he met Agha Khan & Nasim Abid (below).
Beat it, dirt bikers.
That’s the loose translation of a sign that Agha Khan posted Thursday at the Exxon Tiger Mart at Whalley and Fitch — and of a new law and crackdown on daredevils on “motorized recreational vehicles” terrorizing New Haveners in parks and on the streets.
Top cops launched the crackdown Thursday as a new season of perilous ATV, dirt-bike and pack motorcycle riding dawns.
Sgt. Derek Werner and other cops brought signs to the Tiger Mart and gas stations throughout the city, informing people of the rules under a newly amended city ordinance. (Click here to read the full amended ordinance.) The rules include:
• Anyone operating an ATV or dirt bike on city streets or sidewalks or parks or on private property without permission faces $1,000 — $2,000 fines. (The previous fine amount was $99.)
• Passengers 16 and older face $250 fines.
• Cops can more easily seize offenders’ vehicles under a new streamlined city process that replaces a state court process.
• Gas station owners may not allow people to gas up dirt bikes or quads. They face $100 fines (after an initial warning) for violations. They also must post the signs about the new law; dealers of these vehicles must post the signs too.
Abid: This helps us, too.
Sign posted.
Owner Nasim Abid and Manager Agha Khan said they were happy to post the sign Thursday.
“This is for our benefit too,” said Abid, who also owns the gas station at Whalley and Sherman.
“I was on Dixwell Avenue Saturday. There were 100 people. They were doing wheelies. I got scared and pulled over.”
Top west side cop Lt. Elliot Rosa asked Abid to call him if groups of riders amass at his station.
“Pick up the phone,” Rosa said.
“Absolutely,” Abid replied.
Police have begun training at line-up about the newly amended law governing use of the vehicles. And police said they’re beginning crackdowns at hot spots. Wednesday night they issued the first fine under the amended law: After two 15-year-olds crashed a miniature quad on Kimberly Avenue shortly before 7 p.m., the police fined their father, who was accompanying them.
The new campaign represents the latest chapter in a years-long quest by New Haven to craft a workable approach to contain out-of-control dirt-bike, ATV, and group-motorcycle riding without engaging in police chases that endanger cops, the public, and the riders themselves.
Justin Elicker has been involved in that effort since his days as an East Rock/Cedar Hill alder. Click here or watch the above video to revisit a confrontation he had with an unapologetic dirt-biker (also named Justin) at a 2012 City Hall hearing.
At Thursday’s presser, from right: Mayor Justin Elicker, Acting Police Chief Renee Dominguez, Asst. Chief Karl Jacobson, patrol chief Lt. Mark O’Neill, Lt. Elliot Rosa, Sgt. Shayna Kendall.
Elicker has continued focusing on the issue as the city’s mayor. He joined top cops for a press conference Thursday across from the Tiger Mart at Whalley and Fitch to announce the latest round of stepped-up efforts
At the press conference, he fielded a familiar question: Why doesn’t New Haven give these operators of illegal vehicles a safe, legal, off-road place to ride?
An east side cop once tried that, even offering to ferry people to a suburban location where it’s legal. They weren’t interested. For many on-street and park stunt speedsters, part of the thrill is breaking the law, he said.
“Most of the people they catch are out-of-towners,” Elicker noted.
“We’re a small city. I think I can pretty safely say no neighborhood is going to want an ATV or dirt bike track by their home,” he added.
Elicker, Acting Police Chief Renee Dominguez, and Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson, who worked on the revised city law, all emphasized that the point isn’t to make arrests or subject cops or pedestrians or riders to potentially deadly chases. The point is to use a variety of tools to make it difficult to pilot illegal vehicles on city streets and other public spaces. (The tools do not at this point include using drones.) The cops are making extra efforts to identify people involved in dangerous rides.
“Not only are we giving you a $1,000 fine. We’re taking your bike too,” Jacobson said. “it’s about changing behavior. We just don’t want you riding around streets unsafely.”
Edgewood Park steward Frank Cochran: Everyone’s in danger.
Frank Cochran of the Edgewood Park Green Team spoke at the press conference about the dangers posed when the riders tear through playgrounds and on, or off, park roads and trails.
“They find a grassy area. They don’t stay on the paved surface at all. They’re not interested in that. They want to go on the grassy areas,” Cochran said. “They tear up the grass … It destroys the park … It scares pedestrians and dog walkers.”
BIlingual quest: Sgt. Werner with Spanish-language version of the notice.
Click here, here, and here to read previous stories containing the perspectives of some of the riders themselves and police efforts to work with them.