East Haven crafting law to crack down on illegal ATVs, dirt bikes

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A parade of dirt bikes and ATVs cruised through East Haven during a large scale, organized ride last year.

Police Lt. Manuel Cotto speaks during a news conference in front of a Cumberland Farms gas station in Bridgeport May 13, 2022. A recent Bridgeport law made it illegal to sell gas to unregistered ATVs and off-road dirt bikes in the city.

EAST HAVEN — As illegal motor vehicle activity continues to threaten community safety and strain local law enforcement, officials said, the town is crafting an ordinance it hopes will deter those operations.

Town officials are working on a law that would prohibit gas stations from selling fuel to all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes, following the footsteps of other municipalities that have adopted similar ordinances to help remove those vehicles from public roadways.

A draft of the proposed ordinance will be considered by the Town Council at either its regularly scheduled December meeting, or some time early next year, police Capt. Joe Murgo said. Officials removed the soon-to-be proposed ordinance from the council's Oct. 4 meeting agenda to clarify some of its language.

While police say they're hopeful the law will discourage ATV and dirt bike riders and make roadways safer, some residents have expressed worry that it could have unintended consequences.

Driving an ATV or dirt bike on a public roadway is illegal in East Haven, and comes with a stiff penalty.

Murgo said the issue arose for East Haven in 2013, when illegal dirt bike and ATV activity on city streets began occurring across the country. Since 2013, police have received 741 calls for service related to illegal ATV operation on local roadways. Since 2018, the number of calls for those incidents was 279.

Riders often will take part in large-scale events, sometimes involving more than a hundred people; they generally meet in New Haven and cruise through surrounding communities, Murgo said.

The offenders are notoriously hard to catch as they zip and maneuver through the streets, preventing police from chasing them and making arrests.

"It's intimidating for motorists," Murgo said. "They aren't following the rules of the road, not stopping at stoplights, and at times are getting into physical altercations with motorists."

The town has beefed up its ordinances in recent years, but it hasn't entirely nixed the reckless behavior, according to Murgo.

"The behavior has just continued year after year, and being able to pull up to gas stations to gas up is one of the aspects that allowed this behavior to continue," Murgo said.

Similar laws banning the sale of fuel to illegal motor vehicles exist in New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford.

New Haven's Board of Alders passed its ordinance last year, prohibiting gas stations from selling fuel to illegal ATV and dirt bike operators.

New Haven police were unable to immediately gather statistics on the law's efficacy. But they said anecdotal evidence seems to show it is helping.

"It hasn't stopped (illegal activity)," police spokesman Officer Scott Shumway said. "But we are seeing less dirt bikes on the roads."

New Haven police have issued only a few fines to gas stations since the law's passage, and those businesses tend to be serial offenders, Shumway said.

Police try to be lenient with first-time offenders, giving them a warning before imposing any penalty, Shumway added.

"We’re not trying to jam up gas station attendants," he said. "We do give chances."

Officers understand that "it's not just one dirt bike pulling up to the gas station, it's 10 of them," he continued. "And when they come in and say, ‘Let me get $5 on pump one,’ and you say, ‘No,’ what's going to happen?"

Bridgeport's law, enacted in May, poses fines up to $250 for businesses that sell fuel to unregistered ATV or dirt bike riders.

As a result of the law, Bridgeport police have distributed signs and stickers to every gas station so riders of the vehicles, which are illegal to use on public streets and sidewalks, won't have an issue.

"We want the gas station owners to blame us," Lt. Manuel Cotto said. "We do not want any conflict between gas station owners and the customers."

But some East Haven residents have voiced uncertainty about how successful the law might be.

"The fact of the matter is these people don't come from East Haven, they’re all from out of town," resident John Conway, who rides a Harley-Davidson, said. "Chances of them stopping to fuel here are slim to none. It's not up to the fuel stations to be responsible for policing this issue."

One member of an East Haven Facebook group page responded with similar distaste, saying the ordinance would take away business for local fuel companies and "possibly cause more lawsuits for the town."

But Murgo said he believes the law could reduce the number of disputes between motorists and gas station attendants refusing to sell them fuel because the policy will be enforced uniformly across town – and not vary from business to business.

"Because it will be a town ordinance, and not a business practice or policy enacted by individual owners, it will cut down on disputes," Murgo said.

"Business owners’ hands are tied," he added. "They can't risk getting themselves in trouble and illegal ATV operators will hopefully respect the fact that business owners have a business to run and want to do so in good standing with the community in which they run their business."

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