ATVs Wide open up Chestnut street 5:50pm Monday June 4th. Underage kids, no helmets, A daily occurrence

Here is a picture of the kid leaving his house for another pass, He and his friends regularly blast down the streets of the Second ward at high rates of speed, At a glance, the laws i see being broken; Riding an ATV on public streets, Driving an unregistered vehicle, Riding an ATV under the age of 16, Riding an ATV without a helmet, disturbing the peace, Driving an uninspected vehicle, Driving a vehicle without a license, Endangering pedestrians, Trespassing on private property (I have witnessed this.) He lives at 20 Elm Street, is about 13 years old, and the ATV sits behind the house off an alley. I have notified the police commissioner, but in case authorities have any trouble finding him, i have provided some photos.

Stony wrote; "Perhaps when an innocent person or child gets killed by an out of control, speeding, illegal ATV, they will crack down on them." Yes Stony, and they wont be able to say that they didnt know it was happening. There are many small children on bicycles, and on foot in my neighborhood, and no one is made to use the sidewalks anymore. Liability is why auto owners must carry insurance. When something bad happens, who is going to be liable? I would say the city of Bradford (which translates to we the taxpayers) I have said a hundred times that i dont have a problem with these guys putting a quiet machine down the side of the road to a trail, but when you use this as a "look the other way" policy, endorsed by city officials, then you leave the door open for speed runs by inexperienced and hormone driven punks. Do you really think welfare dad is going to pay when someone gets maimed or killed?

I would think, if nothing comes of your notifying the police commissioner, that your photograph, especially Stony's enlarged version, would be something of an embarrassment to the police (and prompt some action) if presented to the City Council at a public meeting and maybe sent to the Era.

Not only on Chestnut St, but you should see the heavy racing of 4 wheelers out West Washington St & Langmaid Lane lately. I don't have a camera with a fast enough shutter speed to even take pics of then, they're going so fast. But, someday!
The way they are allowed on the streets, it should mean that when our inspections run out on our legal vehicles, then we should be able to just take off our plates, the body of our car and just drive that around on the streets and roads in the area without fear of getting a ticket!!!!!
"Yup", sure thing officer, but I thought it was legal.
Also saw a 3 wheeler coming out of the railroad trail up Elm St yesterday just driving like it was legal. But the funny thing was the set of cutting torches and tanks on the back of the machine. Wonder what he was cutting up to go back for at night??

I found this blurb with a quick google search, but there were numerous wrongful death and injury claims against municipalities regarding illegal ATV use.

Yes Gunny, there does seem to be a double standard at work here, (no pun intended) "The way they are allowed on the streets, it should mean that when our inspections run out on our legal vehicles, then we should be able to just take off our plates, the body of our car and just drive that around on the streets and roads in the area without fear of getting a ticket!!!!!
"Yup", sure thing officer, but I thought it was legal." If you are a scum bum or have had a couple too many DUIs and dont have insurance or a drivers license you can run around Bradfords streets on your ATV or dirt bike with no fear of reprisal, heck, you can find comfy lodging with any number of slumlords too! If that dont suit you or if you are into drugs more than drinking, you can probably find lodging more to your liking at the Riddle or with the Goblins. Want to sleep till noon? just let the ATV babysit those little bastards, they will be fine. A good question is, how do these scummers afford ATVs and dirt bikes on welfare, oh yeah, thats probably drug money that they use for those. Im almost done ranting... When you go through Limestone everyone slows down to 40mph, Why? because they know they will get a big fat ticket if they dont. Enough said.

The "Police Commissioner" is the Mayor, Tom Riel. It's up to him to direct the police to crack down on illegal vehicles speeding up and down the streets of our town all day and night long.

I am NOT talking about the quiet, respectful riders who need to get to the woods or the trails. BUT it's impossible to draw a line between them and those who recklessly speed down the middle of the street. So Bradford, in my humble opinion needs to develop and enforce a zero tolerance for ridding illegal vehicles in the streets, period! The "respectful riders" just need to find a way to trailer their vehicles or walk along side of them to the trails. And by the way, there really isn't ANY legal trails or property to ride on immediately surrounding Bradford. All the "woods" surrounding Bradford is private property who's owners don't want four-wheelers trespassing or riding on.

So that the only way to ride legally anywhere around Bradford is to trailer the vehicle to a legal trail system.

About a month ago, I stopped a guy on a three-wheeler tooling down the middle of my street. I asked him "aren't you afraid of getting stopped by the police and paying a big fine you can't afford"? And he responded "the police won't stop someone on a 'wheeler' unless they are doing something really stupid like speeding or running people down".

Ironically, this very person was speeding (over 25 MPH) and forcing oncoming cars to take evasive actions to avoid hitting him.

Then, just days ago, I was walking to my friends car across the street and we had to wait for a "wagon train" of fully loaded four wheelers coming up the middle of the road. Each one had passengers on them and there were five of them all strung out in a long line! And rather than slow down or wait for a pedestrian to cross, one who already started to cross the street, I had to jump out of THEIR way!

I feel I'm paying WAY too high a tax rate to be run down by vandals in front of my own home!

God help Bradford if somebody ever gets hit by an "illegal" on a three or four-wheeler! 'Cause they would have an easy suit to sue the city for more money than they city has!

About a year ago or so, I put a story and photos on here of a guy on a four-wheeler going down the middle of the street and running into a policeman a few doors down from my house. The officer spoke to the rider and made him get off and walk the vehicle. Later that night, the same guy came speeding up the middle of the street again! Whatever the policeman said to the rider obviously had no effect at all! But I'd bet that had the officer given him a well deserved hefty ticket the first time, he would have thought twice about speeding up the same street hours later. The office did catch him "red handed" riding up the middle of a public street on an illegal vehicle!

The odds are that some innocent person or perhaps a child will be hurt badly or killed as the illegal and reckless vehicle use ramps up!

And who will be to blame?

*Another great reason for a neighborhood watch! The neighbors would all know exactly which house on their block the illegal three and four wheelers were leaving from, and returning to every day! They could provide the police with an exact description and address of the offenders!

I see both ATV and dirtbikes on Sherman/South Ave area a lot. No helmets, younger kids. I feel like I'm one of the very few younger parents that if I even caught my kids playing in the street they'd be getting their butts whooped. I find myself yelling at kids who have no parents in sight to get off the road so they don't get hit.

Have any of you almost hit the kids who ride their bikes at night around the South Ave/Elm Street area? I find myself yelling at these kids frequently if I have to run out at night.... What the hell happened to parenting?

Yes Transplant, what did happen to parenting? I think a lot of us were raised by conscientous parents and try to raise our kids the same way, and then we collide with families whos goal is to crank out as many kids as the state will pay for and let "the streets" raise them. "Heck if it was good enough for us cuz..." To answer your question, yes i see kids all the time in the streets or on bikes all over this neighborhood just rolling out in front of cars without looking. A sense of entitlement is probably the only thing these parasites teach their kids.

There was a small warning article in the Bradford Era recently announcing that the Bradford Township police would be cracking down on illegal ATV activity on or near the Pitt walking trail. At least they acknowledge that this is not a normal everyday thing. I have been on the Pitt trail and seen/heard loud ATVs nearby. Kudos to the Bradford township police and Pitt university and university police.