NEW YORK, Feb. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Motorcyclists across the nation are awaiting a decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York which they hope will declare New York’s “motorcycle only” roadway checkpoints to be unconstitutional. The case Wagner et al. v. The County of Schenectady, et al. could end up in the United States Supreme Court. The checkpoints, which target well-known motorcycle events, force motorcyclists traveling to and from those events to leave the roadway, regardless of any wrongdoing, and have their vehicles and equipment inspected for safety and non-safety equipment violations and stolen VIN numbers. Motorcyclists have been detained as long as 45 minutes in makeshift stockades while undergoing the inspections. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration recently began Federal funding for motorcycle checkpoints nationwide in order to assess their effectiveness despite objections raised by members of Congress.

The New York lawsuit is the first to challenge the constitutionality of motorcycle checkpoints. The plaintiffs are being represented by Proner & Proner, a plaintiffs personal injury law firm with a long history of doing “pro bono” legal work on behalf of motorcyclists. The Proner firm commenced the lawsuit on behalf of four motorcyclists who were detained at two separate checkpoints.

The checkpoints are funded by a grant from the New York Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee and the troopers who work them are paid overtime. Although the stated purpose of the checkpoints is to promote safety, the majority of the more than a thousand tickets which were issued during the first year of the checkpoints had nothing to do with safety and instead focused on non-safety violations such as loud pipes. The written guidelines for the checkpoints specifically state that one of the purposes of the checkpoints is to look for stolen and forged VINs and the police readily admit that they often have undercover members of their gang and auto theft units working the checkpoints looking for signs of criminal activity.

The Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly made it clear that any roadway checkpoint whose primary purpose is general crime control constitutes an unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment and is presumptively unconstitutional. Notwithstanding that fact, the progress reports which the police prepared on the checkpoints specifically state that the grant funds are used “for overtime for intelligence gathering and the subsequent criminal and traffic enforcement.” The police admit that the checkpoints, which focus only on equipment violations and forged and stolen VINs, do not address any of the major causes of motorcycle accidents such as reckless driving, driver inattentiveness and alcohol impairment.

Lawyers for the Plaintiff Riders and Defendant State Police are both seeking summary judgment on the Fourth Amendment claims. The future of motorcyclists’ rights hangs in the balance.

For more information contact: Mitchell Proner 212 986-3030 or MProner@Prolaw1.com

ABATE of Georgia: http://www.abatega.org/state_director.htm

As many of you know, the State of Georgia received $70,000.00 from the NHSTA for Motorcycle ONLY Safety Check Points. They will stop all Motorcycles at these Check Points.

We were informed by unnamed sources that the Check Points would start in early March to coincide with The Daytona Bike Week Event. Most points of entry to Florida will be involved.

We are anticipating them to start March 3rd in order to take advantage of the additional flow of Motorcycle traffic thru our State.

I was told that the officers conducting the safety check points have been trained in what to check for so be sure you, your paper work and your bike are in order.

We understand that this is just a way to increase revenues so do all you can to avoid adding to the state funds.

There are many who Trailer into Georgia and ride into Florida from here. You may wish to change your plans and trailer on through to Florida

Dan Forrest, State Director of A.B.A.T.E. Georgia

SB219 was heard again in the senate finance committee this morning.

Senator Charlie Huggins offered up an amendment to an amendment to remove the language that ABATE opposes, thanks in large part to the work and letters from Scott Hamman of Kenai ABATE.

Senator Donnie Olsen ask that the bill again be held so he can look further into the ramification of the mandatory helmet clause, would place on his constituents out in the bush where they do not have helmets readily available from purchase. This in my opinion a very good sign.

Boyd

HB262 – May Is Motorcycle Awareness Month Has passed it first hurdle in the House. With very high praise from the legislators HB262 was passed unanimously out of the House Transportation Committee on Iits way to the house for a vote on the floor.

03-19-10 I forgot to menstion in the earlier post that there was one admenment to this bill. It was amended to say Motorcycle and Motor-scooter Awareness Month. One of the legislators is a motor-scooter rider.