A veteran city councillor
is cautioning off-road vehicle drivers amid complaints of ATVs and side-by-sides veering off their permitted routes.
Bill Hanson says the vehicles are being increasingly spotted
on main streets, contrary to a municipal bylaw.
“I hope the quad owners and the side-by-side owners would realize you can’t drive down streets, you can only cross them,” he tells The Reminder, “and you’re supposed to take the shortest route to get out of town. Lately it just seems that they’re all over the place.”
Hanson was part of the
city council that in 2009 voted
to allow ATVs and side-by-
sides on designated routes
within Flin Flon.
The move came after quad drivers made a pitch for the privilege, arguing that loading their machines onto a trailer to take them in and out of town was cumbersome and unnecessary.
In 2012, Mayor George Fontaine raised the spectre of the intracity routes being abolished if the irresponsible use of ATVs continued.
At that time his concern related to underage drivers who
were illegally operating quads in the community, sometimes
carelessly.
Fontaine told the public he “would like to remind parents – because I don’t think it’s adults doing this – to make sure that they have some control of their kids that they’re letting go on machines like this.”
Maps of designated quad routes are available at city hall.
