DIXFIELD – Police are putting parents on notice about allowing children under 10 years of age to ride dirt bikes up, down and across town and state roads.

“It’s not that they’re driving badly, but we’ve seen this happen with kids well under the age of 10 and it cannot continue. It’s a safety issue,” said Chief Richard A. Pickett.

“They can ride in their backyards and in fields where they’ve got permission, but not on a public access road,” he added.

Citing Maine law, Pickett said no child under the age of 10 can legally ride a dirt bike or all-terrain vehicle without an adult riding on the bike with the child.

Likewise, children over the age of 10 but under the age of 16 can only cross a public way maintained for travel if they have completed a training course by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and are accompanied by an adult.

“In our town, we’re very flexible because snowmobiling and ATV riding is a way of life in Dixfield. But the message we’re trying to get across is that children under the age of 10 must have an adult riding on the bike with them,” Pickett said.

To cross a road or ride along side of one on a designated ATV access route, which Dixfield has, riders must stay to the extreme right and motorbikes and ATVs must be registered.

Drivers and passengers riding dirt bikes who are under the age of 18 must also wear helmets.

“It hasn’t been a problem yet, and I don’t want to make it into a problem, but official caution is worth a pound of cure sometimes,” Pickett added.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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