NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- The NYPD demolished nearly 100 seized dirt bikes, ATVs, and other illegal motorbikes to send a message on Tuesday.
The bikes are made for off-road use and are not street-legal, but they generate numerous complaints from New York drivers and pedestrians.
Among the complaints: menacing maneuvers, loud engines, speeding, racing up on sidewalks, and failing to signal. When bikers travel in packs, police say the dangers grow.
"It is the New Yorkers who live and work in our communities - and who must endure these hazards - who are telling us loud and clear: Get these motorbikes out of our neighborhood.' The NYPD got the message, and that's exactly what we're doing," NYPD Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said.
There were 92 bikes crushed on Tuesday at the Erie Basin Auto Pound in Brooklyn as part of an overall Summer 2022 Motorbikes Plan the NYPD has instituted this year.
Officials are not only hoping to rid the streets of the illegal bikes but also to raise public awareness about the serious consequences of riding them.
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