New Jersey

Recent Legislative Action

2009

A823: Increases ORV registration fees & enacts tougher penalties - including vehicle impoundment - for violating ORV laws (5/21/09: Assembly floor amendment passed)

2008

A1054: Raises penalties for operating snowmobiles or ORVs while under the influence of alcohol (1/8/08: Referred to Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee).

S1510: Enacts tougher penalties and fines for ORV violations, including the impoundment of vehicles (3/10/09: Introduced)

A2012: Requires ORV trespassers to compensate property owners for damage to their lands (3/13/08: Passed 78-0 by the full Assembly)

S1938: Clarifies that vehicle trespass includes ORVs and requires ORV trespassers to fully compensate for damages in addition to other penalties (6/9/08)

A823: Increases ORV registration fees and creates new, tougher penalties, including vehicle impoundment, for violating ORV laws (6/12/08: Approved 12-0 by Assembly Committee on Transportation and Public Works)

Community Voices Demand Action in New Jersey

• "There was an outcry for us to do something...Farmers were having problems with them tearing up their crops." -- Jack Blizzard, Cumberland County Trooper, "Port Republic cranks up penalties on illegal ATV riders", Press of Atlantic City (8/13/08)

• "Illegal riding causes $2 million in damage each year to our state parks. Farmers are finding damage to their private property. The Forest Service referred to unrestrained off-road vehicle use as the biggest challenge to the American landscape." -- NJ State Sen. Bob Gordon, "New Jersey Bill Would Create Three Off-Road Parks", Dealer News (1/20/10)

• "The police do receive (off-highway vehicle) complaints on a regular basis throughout the township, and it's a challenge enforcing the relative laws' because the OHVs can get around easily on the terrain but police can not. We are not equipped with an equivalent mode of transportation, making it difficult and dangerous to pursue violators." -- Lt. Patrick Shaffery, Press of Atlantic City (6/24/08)

• "Accidents have occurred and parks where Little League games are held are being torn up because of this. "We [police] don't pursue these vehicles because they go from 0 to 60 m.p.h. in three seconds, and we don't want to make a bad situation worse. It's the community members who know where these things are being stored and know who's riding them because, let's face it, these things are not quiet." -- Police Chief John Thomson, "Camden Police ask for tips in ATV crackdown", Philadelphia Inquirer (6/30/10)

• "Just because somebody buys something, just because the ATV industry sells these machines, does not give them an automatic right to get pieces of forested, public land to use what they purchased, " -- Jeff Tittel, New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, "New law to increase opportunities, and costs, for N.J. ATV operators", The Star Ledger (1/24/10)

• “I don’t know why one neighbor thinks this is OK to do to another neighbor.” -- Councilman Kirk Rothfuss, "Preserved land in Roosevelt torn up by ATVs", The Examiner (5/20/10)

• "Over the last two years, nine victims of ATV accidents were treated at Cooper University Hospital. It's only a matter of time before a child or a senior citizen, who can't react quickly enough, gets killed while walking down the sidewalk or through the park." -- Courier-Post Editorial Board, "Camden cops right to go after the ATVs", Courier-Post (7/2/10)

• "Some people are stringing wire across trails. My buddy ended up in the hospital for a couple of weeks," -- Dan Buske, rider, of West Milford, "New law to increase opportunities, and costs, for N.J. ATV operators", The Star Ledger (1/24/10)

• "Racing through the woods on these machines destroys vegetation and habitat and tears up trail beds. Under this measure, violators will be easier to identify due to the requirement that these vehicles be both registered and numbered." -- Press of Atlantic City Editorial Board, "Regulating ATVs / Better than nothing", Press of Atlantic City (1/19/10)

• "On any given Saturday or Sunday, I can count a minimum of 25 or 30 ATVs rushing past my house to go to the game preserve." -- Russell Stormes, head of the Laurel Lake Crime Watch, Press of Atlantic City (6/16/08)

• "We have fought that issue for many years because of some of the environmental restraints on the property and the closeness to such a large population. There are a thousand homes in Collings Lakes." -- Buena Vista Township Mayor Chuck Chiarello, "Registration now required for off-road vehicles in N.J.", The Daily Journal (1/19/10)

• "We're not at war with ATV riders, but we are at war with illegal ATV riders. There's a difference." -- Kevin DiPatri, Port Norris station commander, Press of Atlantic City (6/16/08)

Recent ORV-Related Media Coverage