FED UP WITH IT
Speeding ATVers and dirt bikers damage Shearstown man’s property for the sixth time
By Olivia Bradbury/Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Eighty-three-year-old Ed Hodder was born in St. John’s in 1941. He grew up there, and worked as a radio announcer for both VOCM and CBC. In the 1970s, he got a job with the federal government at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and he later moved to Alberta to work with the Alberta Housing Company. As director, he looked after the development of Fort McMurray, as well as housing and land development in the northern part of Alberta. After he retired, he moved back to Newfoundland, to a property in Shearstown that meant a lot to him.
Hodder’s current property is where his mother was born and raised. After he got the land from the estate, he built his house there with the intention to settle permanently, which he did in 2005. However, over the past decade, he has witnessed an increasingly bothersome issue on his street, said Hodder, one that has also crossed over onto his property: the reckless driving of off-road vehicles.
Hodder said the majority of residents on North Side Road who use ATVs are responsible and decent. But there are a select few young males who have a tendency to drive recklessly. About 10 years ago, Hodder said, he privately approached then mayor Philip Wood about the problem. Not only do some of the drivers speed, but they also fail to foresee the sharp turn in front of his house, Hodder said. As a result, some vehicles end up driving, or perhaps more accurately, crashing, onto Hodder’s property.
On six separate occasions, quad and dirt bike drivers have ended up on Hodder’s property. They have damaged shrubs and trees, as well as their own vehicles, as they smashed into plants, flowers, decorative works, and even large rocks on Hodder’s well-groomed grounds. It hasn’t been uncommon for an ATV driver to get flung from his machine on impact. Fortunately, none of the drivers have been seriously injured thus far, said Hodder, and the damage, until now, has mostly been minimal. However, the most recent incident on the evening of October 11, was different.
Hodder did not witness the accident but heard accounts from his neighbours. According to them, the bike’s engine was so loud and “vicious” that it startled them, and the driver was going so fast the neighbours were not able to see him before he passed by. The driver, missing the turn, drove between two of the rocks at the edge of Hodder’s property, clipping one. He then smashed into a wrought-iron arbor that was made for Hodder by his late acquaintance Richard Squires, the former mayor of St. Thomas. The driver fled, and has not been identified. The arbor was destroyed. The driver hit it with such force that its concrete block anchors were ripped from the ground.
Out of the six such incidents that have occurred on Hodder’s property, only once did a driver return afterwards. The day after that incident, the young driver came to Hodder’s house with his father. The father apologized and gave Hodder a Tim Horton’s gift card. He also thanked Hodder for looking after his son. Hodder was home at the time of the first five instances, and on those occasions went out to ensure the drivers were uninjured. He had helped the man’s son find his glasses and his helmet, the latter which had landed 50 to 60 feet from where the boy landed. When Hodder asked the boy how fast he thought he was going, the young fellow said eighty kilometres an hour. He was trying to catch up with his friends, who had pulled ahead of him on their own bikes. Hodder frequently sees off-road vehicles careening by at 50 to 60 kilometres an hour, well over the speed limit of the residential area.
Hodder said some of the fast drivers drive stand up on their vehicles, which is particularly dangerous at that turn as they cannot see whether any vehicles are coming from the other direction. He also worries for their safety when they do wheelies on the road. He feels the overall issue is parental and that parents need to better teach their children about vehicle safety.
Hodder has placed a fluorescent arrow by the edge of his property indicating a turn, but this has been inefficient in deterring the incidents so far, he admitted.
Hodder said he has talked to Deputy Mayor Geoff Seymour about the issue, and was told the town manager was looking at putting a warning sign on the road.
“Perhaps the time is approaching, or is already with us, to get serious about where all this irresponsibility is leading our community,” said Hodder of the speeders.