NEW BRITAIN — The city of New Britain is looking to crack down on bikes and four-wheelers, not only on city streets but also off roads.
The New Britain City Council held a subcommittee meeting Wednesday to discuss prohibiting not only ATVs but also dirt bikes, mini motorcycles and snowmobiles.
“It’s being discussed because it’s a quality of life issue. We have groups of teenagers and adults, sometimes eight to 10…tearing through the city streets on their ATVs and their motorcycles,” said Jamie Giantonio, president pro tempore.
Giantonio said sometimes they destroy property, especially on their watershed property.
“We have people who are going up there to ride their ATVs and then take it upon themselves to vandalize our property and set fires and things of that nature,” Giantonio said.
Joseph Girjenti claimed that when residents call police to complain, officers rarely catch the riders.
“We want to keep our streets safe so we don’t want to be chasing people on ATVs through the city streets, and quite frankly, it’s impossible to chase a dirt bike ’cause they can go a lot of places that our police cars can’t,” Giantonio said.
The City Council subcommittee passed a resolution to recommend the full council outlaw ATVs and motorcycles that are unlicensed and unregistered on New Britain city streets and city watershed property.
“If we see a kid driving a dirt bike down the street our police wouldn’t chase them, but now what this gives us is a tool to if we know where they live the kids or the adults who are riding the ATVs we can then go to their property issue the fine and seize the vehicle,” Giantonio said.
If the law goes into affect, anyone found operating a prohibited vehicle would be fined $1,000 for the first offense and $1,500 for the second.
The full 15 member council will be meeting Wednesday, December 14 to discuss. If it passes then it will become a city ordinance, and then the police department can start to enforce it.
