Iwas riding this weekend in the Lackawanna and Hamburg area along I-90 and was stopped by the DEC. The 2 guys were riding older red Polaris 250 4x4's. They are ticketing any riders who ride along the thruways and any railroad tracks. If they stop you, they will ask for your license, registration, and proof of insurance. You must also have your license plate displayed. I was ticketed for not having my plate displayed. My friend was ticketed for no registration and no insurance (2 separate tickets). Now we have to appear in Hamburg Town Court or just plead guilty and pay a fine which I was told was up to $100 for not having my plate displayed. They also stopped 2 kids who were under 16 and did not take an ATV rider safety course. They were actually following these kids to their houses to talk to their parents, My friend and I were just unlucky enough to be crossing the same trail they were on when the DEC cut us off.

I just wanted to warn all of the riders in the area to have the proper documentation with them while riding. If you have it and you are not on the thruway or the railroad tracks, they will let you keep on riding. Because of this, I highly suggest that you DON'T Run from them because they will chase you.

These officers have a great job - they ride ATV's, snowmobiles, and jet ski's and check to make sure you have all of the proper paperwork while out riding whatever it is that you ride.

 

Thanks for the info. So even if you ride on the tracks with a plate and all paperwork, you will still get a ticket?

It's kind of ironic that the Department of Enviromentalist Conservation are driving the most pollutant and destructive atv to the enviroment - 2 stroke 4x4.

 

That's right. Now I stay off of all raidroad tracks. Its just not worth having to pay a hefty fine for "trespassing".

They told me "We are not trying to stop you from riding. We actually encourage you to ride, just not on the railroad tracks or the Thruway."
One other thing, there are only 18 DEC officers in all of New York that ride the trails performing this duty. Odds are you won't see them but I guess those odds were not in my favor on this particular day.

 

The DEC guys were just doing their job.Your friend deserves a ticket and a fine as its guys like him that are making it hard for legal riders to ride without being hassled. If you take the time to read the laws concerning atvs and snowmobiles in NYS, you will see that if you want to ride off your own property, you have to be licensed and insured.Not to hard to figure out.I personally know a few of these officers and if you are not doing anything illegal, riding where you are not supposed to be riding, or do not have the proper paperwork and you get stopped and ticketed, don!t blame anyone but yourself! As for them driving polluting atvs, if you own a outboard motor, a snowmobile or a dirt bike, chainsaw, weedeater or any other 2 stroke, you are just as guilty as polluting the atmosphere as they are except for 1 reason--- they drive what NYS gives them to drive to do their job.

 

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I don't disagree with anything you have just said. The 2 guys were very nice and were obvious ATV enthusiasts by the way they talked with us. Perhaps they could have sent us on our way with a warning, though. I have the plates , I just didn't think mounting them on my Raptor was a good idea. Now I am paying for it. I will mount them now and get over it.

My main purpose with this thread was to warn any riders in the Western NY area to have their paperwork with them while riding to avoid receiving a ticket if stopped and also to not run from the officers. There is a real good chance that they will catch you or you may end up getting hurt while trying to run from them. That's all. If I had a warning, I may have had the plates mounted. My friend with his registration and insurance is another story.

 

drsusz- I agree with you that they could have given you a warning and let you go.But on the other hand, they may have if your friend!s atv had been legal. They have had a lot of problems out that way with the atvs running on private property and the local snowmobile trails. My brother inlaw was caught out there last fall by the Erie County Sheriff who has both atvs and snowmobiles. They checked him over pretty good and seeing he was insured and registered, they sent him on his way.They came out of nowheres he said and thought he was nuts when he heard a siren behind him. In a way your friend might have gotten off easy as we have heard stories around here that if youre caught uninsured and unregistered, they put your quad or bike or sled on a flatbed and impound it!!You get it back when you pay the fine AND the tickets.One last thought, if you were an officer and stopped someone on a trail who had no insurance or registration, his friend on another atv with no plate, would it come to your mind that just maybe these bikes were stlen??? As for myself and the guys I ride with, we are all plated and insured as we don!t usually have enough time to ride as much as we would like to and don!t want any hassles while riding. PS-aren!T you the fella I mailed a club application to awhile back?

 

Yep. And I thank you for the application.
They knew the ATV's were not stollen because they ran our VIN numbers. And yes, if we both had plates, they would have looked at them and said "Have fun riding." Now the next time I see them, I will have no worries and will be glad to stop for them if they want me to.
Lesson learned.

 

I would have no problem stoping for them as long as thay show proper idetification before thay pull you over. and i am not talking about a light and a siren thay had better be in uniform with badges showing.
I have herd to many stories of people thinking thay were being pulled over by some kind of offical and ended up with there quad stolen.

 

These guys had a green uniform, badges, helmets with the DEC logo on them, and 9mm pistols and handcuffs on their belts. No question in my mind they were legit.