Senior garda warns of crackdown on Christmas scrambler bikes

Senior Garda warns parents they may be prosecuted for purchasing scramblers or quads for under-16s

A garda warned that the ‘dangers’ scramblers and quad bikes pose ‘means they are not suitable for children’. Picture: Press 22

A garda who oversaw a major crackdown on scrambler motorbikes in his area has warned parents against buying the vehicles for children for Christmas.

Superintendent Declan O’Sullivan, of Mayfield Garda Station in Cork, said scramblers or quad bikes are completely inappropriate gifts for children and can pose serious dangers in the hands of young people.

The Garda operation targeting scramblers was mounted in the Mayfield area earlier this year on foot of complaints from residents and local public representatives about young people driving scramblers and quad bikes recklessly through housing estates, public greens and fields.

Gardaí encountered children as young as 10 driving these vehicles and doing so without tax or insurance. It later emerged that some of the vehicles had been bought as communion or confirmation gifts.

Supt O’Sullivan said: “We seized several scramblers during the year. It’s into double figures. But we have also been door-stepping the families of those young people who are involved in this activity. They were identified through intelligence. We have been engaging with them, and advising them of the law, and of their responsibilities.

“Some have taken the advice on board. Others have not. We have juvenile liaison officer intervention in some cases, but there have also been prosecutions, and more prosecutions are pending, in relation to this.

“The operation has been effective, thanks to the cooperation we have had from the local community, with the number of reported incidents decreasing.”

Worker’s Party councillor Ted Tynan, who raised the issue at a meeting of the Cork City joint policing committee, hailed the success of the Garda crackdown, and urged people to think twice about considering a scrambler or a quad as a Christmas gift.

Scramblers or mini motorised motorcycles are legally termed as mechanically propelled vehicles (MPVs) governed by Section 30 of the Road Traffic Act. It is an offence to supply an MPV to a person under 16 years of age for use in a public place, where “supply” includes by way of sale, hire, loan, gift or other means of making the vehicle available to a person.

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“A person who contravenes this section is guilty of an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €3,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both,” gardaí said.

“The use of scramblers and indeed quad bikes are not toys — they are heavy, dangerous pieces of machinery that can cause life-changing injuries or death.

“It is known that impacts often happen on areas of uneven ground or as a result of unstable vehicles, especially in the hands of children leading to people falling and landing awkwardly or the vehicle landing on the rider.

“The dangers that these machines pose means they are not suitable for children.”

Supt O’Sullivan said anyone who wants to ride a scrambler or a quad bike should do so in an appropriate setting, such as on a motorcross course, with the appropriate safety gear.