I’m Not The Only One

by Daniel Cuevas

Originally published on Political Storm on August 25, 2004.

In every society there are always a few laws which either contradict other laws or which just don’t make sense. In New York State, the regulation of pocket bikes can most certainly be included in this category.
For those unfamiliar with these vehicles, which are gaining increasing popularity with young people, pocket bikes are also known as mini-bikes. They are cheaply made miniature motorcycles, usually manufactured in China. Designed to resemble high-speed performance racing bikes, these shoddy imitators are anything but that. Priced between $100 and $500 these pocket bikes are only 18 inches high and their frames are 10 inches closer to the ground than regular motorcycles.
Most of these bikes only reach top speeds of 30 miles per hour. A vehicle that small, buzzing down the street, could easily sneak into the blind spot of a larger vehicle like a truck, bus or SUV. Because of their unsafe design, lacking certain standard safety features, pocket bikes cannot even be registered with New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles and are therefore prohibited from being driven on sidewalks, streets, parks or any public space in New York State.
That law simply makes no sense. What has created confusion and tragedy in the Empire State is the fact that these bikes are allowed to be sold in New York City. Unlike most other parts of the United States, New York City is a cramped, congested area where outdoor private property is usually limited to a small backyard.
The flashy appearance of these vehicles, combined with the cheap price and the fact that you don’t need a drivers’ license to operate them, is sometimes too much for many young people to resist. The New York Police Department has confiscated hundreds of pocket bikes in the last few years and handed a hefty fine to the parents.
Merchants that sell these bikes are required by law to display a sign advising purcahsers that the vehicles are only to be driven on private property. But a sheet of loose leaf paper taped to the display window of an electronics store in Jamaica, Queens with the words “Bikes Not Street Legal,” scrawled out in pen just doesn’t seem like an official notice that anyone would take seriously.
Stupidity turned to tragedy when young Donte Pomar was driving his pocket bike in his Queens neighborhood around 3 a.m. three weeks ago. Police tried to pull him over for riding the bike without wearing a helmet. Even though they were in a high-speed patrol car, the 19-year old was confident he could lose the cops anyway.
Donte swerved into an alleyway, but the bike’s dangerously squat frame lost control when it drove over a pothole in the alley, hurling the young man headfirst into the unforgiving concrete. The trauma to his skull was too much, and Donte died before the ambulance arrived. The $100 bike his father bought for him just days earlier laid nearby. One of Donte’s friends, Chris Sanchez, told me he and his friends had no idea pocket bikes were illegal to drive on public property. “Why would they let people sell a bike you’re not allowed to ride?” he asked.
Jose Peralta (D-Queens), a young idealistic New York State Assemblyman, introduced a bill last year that would ban the sale of motorized scooters in New York City. These scooters were very popular and just as illegal as pocket bikes. According to Assemblyman Peralta, his bill was axed because members of the state Assembly from more suburban and rural parts of New York State, where public roads are few and private property often sprawls past the horizon, just couldn’t understand why such a law was necessary.
This year Peralta plans to introduce a similar bill which would ban the sale of pocket bikes in New York City, claiming to have the support of more of his rural colleagues. Unfortunately, the New York State Legislature which has been declared by a survey conducted by New York University Law School as “the most dysfunctional state legislature in the nation,” has yet to pass the state’s 2005 budget. Having missed their April 1, 2004 budget deadline for the 20th consecutive year, Peralta has been told that no new bills would be considered for review until the budget is passed, which he predicts should be sometime after September.
Waiting for bumbling State politicians to fix the pocket bike problem is probably out of the question for the next few months. The only solution is personal responsibility. Merchants will continue to keep these bikes in stock as long as they know they can easily sell them. They don’t care; or perhaps they don’t consider that their young customers may get fined or killed on them. If parents stop buying these death machines, merchants will stop selling them.
Hopefully, the unnecessary demise of Donte Pomar has made parents and children alike aware of the illegality and peril that comes with purchasing a pocket bike. I know it’s easy for me to tell others how to raise their kids when I’m not the one with a son or daughter pestering me to buy them a pocket bike.
After all, these bikes are inexpensive, and too many parents just want to make their children happy. I understand that. So if the urge to buy these bikes is too strong, I appeal to parents to do the right thing and buy it outside of New York City.
Hit local merchants right where it hurts; they’ll get the message once they see their sales slipping. Where the legal system fails, personal responsibility must begin.