Suffolk County Police Put Brakes On Motorcycle, ATV Riders Allegedly Driving Recklessly
DEER PARK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - The crackdown on reckless motorcycle drivers continued over the weekend on Long Island.
As WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs reported, Suffolk County Police kept busy on Sunday handing out several arrests and citations.
"Suffolk Police arrested seven motorcyclists after dozens of 911 callers reported 20 to 50 individuals driving recklessly on motorcycles," Suffolk Police spokesperson Ryan Defilippis told Xirinachs.
More than 30 others were ticketed.
Suffolk County Police Put Brakes On Motorcycle, ATV Riders Allegedly Driving Recklessly
The calls came in between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. reporting that operators of several motorcycles, dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles were driving recklessly on Main Street in Bay Shore, on westbound Sunrise Highway in West Islip, and on Deer Park Avenue in North Babylon, Suffolk County police said.
Eyewitnesses said the bikers were speeding and weaving in and out of traffic on busy roadways, Xirinachs reported.
The bikers arrested were:
• Thomas Palacios, 35, of Bay Shore, charged with driving under the influence after he operated an ATV on Pine Aire Drive and Washington Avenue in Bay Shore while under the influence of alcohol.
• Matthew Valentino, 25, of East Quogue, charged with reckless driving after he was observed driving recklessly on Udall Road in Baywood at a high rate of speed and swerving in and out of oncoming traffic causing other vehicles to swerve off the roadway to avoid him.
• Tikret Cekic, 23, of Brooklyn, charged with Unlawful Fleeing of a Police Officer after he sped through a red light on Pine Aire Drive in Bay Shore in an attempt to flee from officers.
• Samuel Morales, 19, of Brooklyn, who was driving a 2003 motorcycle. He was seen passing cars on the right shoulder and running a red light on Pine Aire Drive in Bay Shore, and tried to flee and resist arrest after falling off his motorcycle, police said.
• Jason Coleman, 29, of Yonkers, was arrested on Pine Aire Drive in Brentwood and charged with leaving the scene of an accident. Coleman made an illegal U-turn in front of a 2004 Toyota sedan that struck Coleman's 2009 Yamaha motorcycle. Coleman fled the scene of the crash without exchanging information with the other driver. The adult male driver of the Toyota was not injured.
• Joel Hernandez, 19, of Brentwood, was charged with criminal mischief and reckless driving after he backed into a police vehicle on Pine Aire Drive in Bay Shore. The officers in the vehicle were not injured.
• A woman whom police have not identified, who was a passenger on one of the motorcycles and allegedly attempted to flee when an officer ordered to stop.
Police said four motorcycles and an ATV were impounded.
Later in the day, police arrested more than 30 people trespassing with their motorcycles behind a county government building in Bay Shore.
The reported arrests came less than two weeks after Suffolk County police arrested seven bikers on similar allegations along the Long Island Expressway.
In that incident on Monday, Oct. 14, Suffolk County police said the bikers were seen for miles driving recklessly, which frightened motorists.
The incident also came just weeks after an SUV driver was beaten in Manhattan after an altercation with bikers on the West Side Highway.
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