VIDEO: ATVs Blitz Providence on Tuesday
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
The temperature in Providence hit 60 degrees on Tuesday, and the city was hit with wave after wave of illegal ATVs and bikes. Many of the bikes were operating without registrations and driving illegally. Temperatures are expected to hit the low 60s on Wednesday too.
Videos show groups of ATVs and motorcycles with no visible registrations surrounding cars, passing dangerously on all sides.
GoLocal saw and received reports of ATVs traveling at excessive speeds and blowing through traffic lights and stop signs.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTProvidence Mayor Brett Smiley stated as a candidate that he would work to ban illegal ATV activities.
Smiley said that all available resources, including the offer of having the State Police assist Providence, should be used.
As a candidate, Smiley said that the State Police could be helpful as some of the ATV groups travel from community to community.
Elorza’s Legacy
For years, former Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza had instructed Providence Police not to enforce traffic laws relating to illegal ATVs,
Easter Day Incident in Olneyville Neighborhood in 2015
In 2015, the City Council approved an ordinance allowing police to seize and potentially destroy ATVs stopped on city streets, after a 2015 ordinance allowed the city to fine drivers and force temporary forfeit of such vehicles. The updated measure came after an incident on Easter Weekend that saw dirt bikes and ATVs swarm a playground on Aleppo Street forcing people to flee the park.
But the ordinance did little. The ATV incidents have exploded over the past seven years.
Wayland Incident
An incident on the East Side of Providence in 2017 involving a group of motorbikes and ATVs - including some that threatened a mother with children in her car - drew concerns from residents.
"I don't feel that this was a regular Sunday driving type of guys. It seemed like they were out to cause trouble," said Providence resident Cristina Moody, who said she was confronted by several of the drivers -- and called the police. She was driving with her two young children.
"What was I to do in this situation? He was yelling at me and making scary faces. I had my two-year-old and one-year-old in the car. I was trapped," Moody told GoLocal. "Eventually they went -- and the police finally said they'd send someone over, but I was scared and I drove away from that area. I went down a side road. I was shaking -- I needed to stop and calm down."
In July of 2017, two Providence Police officers told GoLocalProv that the command of the Providence Police Department have ordered patrol officers not to enforce traffic laws as they relate to gangs of ATVs - which are not legally allowed on city streets - and motorbikes.
Fall of 2020 - Hundreds in Bike Gangs
Hundreds of ATVs— and dirt bikes — ran rampant in Providence on one Sunday in 2020, with an estimated 300 individuals taking to city roads and state highways.
These were the biggest gangs and the Providence Police reportedly received hundreds of complaints. Later that month, ATV rider Jhamal Gonsalves was seriously injured in an incident.
Mother Dragged from Car and Beaten in Front of Child
In August of 2021, a woman was reportedly punched and kicked by a group of ATV and dirt bike riders -- both illegal for operation on city streets
According to what the woman told police, multiple bikes and ATV drivers exited their vehicles, opened the car's driver-side door, and began to assault the female driver. The woman said her friend was dragged from the car and beaten on the roadway.
The driver, upon speaking with police, told officers she was punched and kicked, and had pain to her knees, and head. The subjects fled outbound on Valley Street.
Assault on East Side in 2022
A man says he was accosted by a group of all-terrain dirt bikes on the East Side of Providence — and that they damaged his car.
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