November 15, 2012

CONNECTICUT LEGISLATOR FILES BILL TO RAISE PENALTIES
ON ILLEGAL DIRT BIKES, ATVS

By Joe Amarante, Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — Reacting to residents’ complaints over dirt bikes flying down city streets, state Rep. Patricia Dillon has filed legislation to hike the penalties on illegal dirt bikes and ATVs.

A city aldermanic hearing this week heard from a dozen people bemoaning the 50 or so dirt bike enthusiasts who gather, race through parks and down city streets, do tricks and shoot video — destroying the peace, residents said. Dillon said she spoke with the city’s chief administrative officer, Rob Smuts, and said she had some experience fighting a prostitution problem years ago with language that allowed authorities to seize cars used in such activity.

Dillon, D-New Haven, and a member of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said, “Current state law limiting penalties to $250 is outmoded, and should be increased. I will work with city officials and law enforcement to make sure we have a law with realistic penalties to protect public safety.”

State law allows municipalities to impound dirt bikes and ATVs but the law caps towing and storage fees at $250 per vehicle. The idea for the new bill is based on a Philadelphia law that puts the retrieval penalty at $2,000, but Dillon said that amount may be too high and could create a storage problem; the new penalty amount has not been set.

“Most of the complaints center around Edgewood Park, but this is a serious problem across New Haven,” Dillon said. “I have heard stories of packs of riders flying through our neighborhoods.”

She had also heard a while back from a senior citizen trying to cross a street who was terrified by a “swarm” of dirt bikes as she stepped off the curb.

“On West Rock Avenue, it can be very dramatic,” she said, “with 10-15 dirt bikes barreling out of the park and down the street.”

Not that Dillon doesn’t “sympathize with the impulse” to ride, “enjoying the wind in your hair.” She grew up on Long Island and she knew people who rode; she attended “scrambler” races in Fishkill, N.Y., also called “scrambles.”

Riders need to picture themselves as those senior pedestrians 60 years from now, because empathy for different people is “part of the give and take of life,” she said.

“One of the wonderful things about living in the city is its wonderful parks,” she said. “But one of the burdens of that is we have to learn restraint. ... It isn’t easy but you have to do it.”

Dillon said the proposed bill has been filed with the Legislative Commissioners Office for drafting and will be introduced during the 2013 legislative session.