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Niles plans ATV crackdown
By JORDAN COHEN
NILES
Councilmen say they’ve had enough of drivers of all-terrain vehicles’ breaking laws by riding on city streets and disappearing into the woods when police try to catch them. Now they plan to significantly toughen the penalties against violators.
“They drive down the road like maniacs, and many of them are children,” said police Captain Charles Wilson. “They don’t realize cars are going to kill them.”
Residents have been complaining as well. At last week’s council meeting, a Summit Street resident said the ATVs show up between midnight and 2 a.m., making it impossible for anyone to sleep.
Councilman Ed Stredney, D-3rd, whose ward includes Summit Street, says he has been receiving numerous complaints on a regular basis.
Police also have investigated repeated incidents on Robbins Avenue near McKinley Heights and on South Main Street by an industrial area.
Wilson said police have arrested eight riders in less than two months, three of whom were repeat offenders. He revealed that several were caught when they drove into a convenience-store parking lot to buy gas for their ATVs.
City ordinances prohibit four-wheelers from riding on the streets, but Wilson said the violations are blatant, and riders head for the woods when they spot police who have a “no-pursuit order.”
“It’s too dangerous for anyone to go after them in there including on [another] ATV,” the police captain said.
Wilson met with five members of council Wednesday to discuss stiffer penalties for offenders. City ordinances list fines from $50 to $500 and possible jail time from three to 30 days. Wilson said he did not know if anyone has ever been jailed for an ATV offense.
Councilmen have asked Terry Dull, the city’s law director, to draft a change to the ordinance that will include permanent confiscation of the ATVs if there is a third offense.
Police confiscate the four-wheelers when the rider is arrested, but the vehicle has to be returned.
“We have to change that because all we do is confiscate and give it back,” said Mayor Ralph Infante.
Dull said another change in the law would allow the city to “immobilize” the ATV after the first or second offense by placing restraining equipment on it that would render the vehicle inoperative.
The revised ordinance, which will be brought before council at next week’s meeting, increases the penalty range from $100 to $1,000 along with fees that offenders will have to pay for towing the ATV and impounding it.
Dull said the ordinance may increase maximum jail time to six months.
The city has fought an unsuccessful battle against improper ATV use for several years. In 2008, Niles, Weathersfield and Girard launched a three-prong crackdown against offenders that led to several arrests.
Officials of Ohio Central’s Youngstown Belt Railroad warned at the time that ATV riders were using their property as “their private amusement park” and tearing up the stones along the track that serve to stabilize the rails.
A railroad executive said the damage could lead to derailments.
Wilson blamed parents for not supervising the use of ATVs by their children. “They’re buying and not taking any responsibility,” the police captain said.