Unanswered questions and uncertain legal foundations have led a leading advocacy group, the AMA to encourage riders to protest motorcycle only checkpoints.
As reported last week, tens of thousands of motorcyclists from around the nation could be subject to Georgia motorcycle-only checkpoints if those checkpoints are in place before, during and after Daytona Bike Week, which runs March 4-13.
The State of Georgia received a $70,000 grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to conduct one or more roadside motorcycle-only checkpoints. This follows the NHTSA giving New York state fund to operate a similar program, which is currently facing a lawsuit.
"The AMA believes that the primary source of motorcycle safety is in motorcycle crash prevention and not in arbitrarily pulling over riders and randomly subjecting them to roadside inspections," Moreland said.
"The NHTSA should focus on decreasing the likelihood of crashes from occurring in the first place," Moreland said. "No public money should be applied to promoting such a program without first addressing questions from the motorcycling community," he detailed.
In addition to letters submitted to the past and present governors of Georgia, the AMA has questioned the potential discriminatory and legal nature of this program and submitted a list of questions for clarification to the New York State Police concerning that agency's program.
The AMA also sent a letter to NHTSA Administrator David Strickland urging him to suspend the grant program that gives states money for motorcycle-only checkpoints until questions have been addressed.
It appears Mr. Strickland doesn’t agree. He views the checkpoints as part of the NHTSA’s ongoing safety campaign to decrease motorcycle accidents and considers the results in New York State as a success.
‘After reviewing promising results from a program applying this checkpoint concept to motorcycle safety conducted by the State of New York, NHTSA is using the Motorcycle Law Enforcement Demonstration Program to assess the concept for possible replication by other States,’ Strickland replied in his reply to the AMA, ‘At one of the motorcycle checkpoints conducted in New York, 225 motorcycles were inspected and 11 percent were found to have unsafe tires, 1 percent had illegal handlebars, and 36 percent of riders were not wearing helmets meeting the New York State law.’
It its latest move, the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) is urging riders nationwide to contact Georgia Governor Nathan Deal to urge him to stop the Georgia State Patrol from conducting any motorcycle-only traffic checkpoints.
The request is simple; suspend the motorcycle only checkpoints until key questions are answered. Those questions, which have been posed by the AMA to Deal and other officials, include;
How do motorcycle-only checkpoints increase the safety of motorcyclists?
Where do states draw their authority to conduct motorcycle-only checkpoints?
Is "probable cause" required to stop a motorcycle and, if so, what constitutes probable cause?
In the case being heard in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York over the motorcycle-only checkpoints conducted in New York State questions their legal foundation.
The lawsuit notes 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.
Not withstanding 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.
This leaves many in the motorcycle industry as well as some safety experts with concerns over the very reason given by the NHTSA for the grants in the first place. At the very least the targeted checkpoints appear to put the definition of motorcycle safety on a broad plain.
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