The City Council in Springfield, Massachusetts is expected to take a final vote before the end of the year on legislation that could cut off fuel to illegal dirt bike riders.
Earlier this year, the City Council voted unanimously to give initial approval to an ordinance that would make it illegal to sell gasoline to off-highway vehicles that are driven up to the pumps. But the legislation stalled amid concerns gas station clerks could become targets of violence by dirt bike riders irate over being unable to obtain fuel.
The sponsor, Councilor Orlando Ramos, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said he plans to bring the ordinance to the floor for a final vote in the next few weeks.
“It is too important an issue,” Ramos said. “We’re going to continue to deal with these illegal dirt bikers come next summer and unless we do something about it someone is going to get killed.”
This will be Ramos’ last chance to pass the measure as his term expires at the end of December. He is also a state legislator and did not seek re-election to his Ward 8 council seat.
“This is an ordinance that I have been working on for over a year now and put in a lot of work and effort, a lot of research, a lot of hours into looking into best practices across the country,” Ramo said. “This has worked in other communities. It has helped reduce the number of dirt bikes on the road, it has made it more difficult for illegal dirt bikers to operate, and it has made the streets safer.”
At a meeting of the Public Safety Committee Monday night, officials from two cities in Connecticut that have banned direct gasoline sales to dirt bike operators said it has been a useful tool, coupled with other enforcement efforts, to get the illegal vehicles off their streets.
“We’ve seen a real reduction in the amount of riding,” said Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson of the New Haven Police Department. He said gas station owners have worked cooperatively with police officers, who this summer issued just 10 tickets to attendants for illegally selling gasoline to dirt bike riders.
“For us it was about messaging –getting the right message out there—but also have an enforcement to back it up,” Jacobson said.
Former Hartford City Councilor Raul De Jesus said when he introduced the proposed ban on selling gasoline to dirt bike riders four years ago there were concerns raised about the safety of store clerks, but none of the worst case scenarios came to pass.
“There is going to be some apprehension any time you introduce something like this,” De Jesus said.
Still, Springfield City Councilor Trayce Whitfield said she remains leery about voting for an ordinance that might put a young gas station clerk in harm’s way.
“We have people sticking-up gas stations and banks in the area a lot, so I would still be concerned with the safety of the attendant telling someone ‘we’re not going to give you gas’,” Whitfield said.
Both Hartford and New Haven have other tools to discourage people from illegally operating off-highway vehicles. Police in both cities have the authority to permanently seize dirt bikes. In Hartford, the forfeited vehicles are destroyed. New Haven donates the bikes to a charity that distributes them overseas.
Ramos, as a state legislator, is trying to get Springfield police similar authority to seek a court order to seize and destroy illegally-operated dirt bikes.
