MACON, Ga. — According to Georgia state law, you can't drive a four-wheeler or most dirt bikes on the roadways. However, one Macon man complains that it's happening way too frequently on Lake Valley Road, and breaking this law could be dangerous.
Michael Ventimiglia lives in the Glenwood Forest neighborhood. He says he would like to see teenagers get educated about what's legal to drive on the roadways.
“Every day, they're riding motorcycles and riding four-wheelers. You're going, 'What in the world? Somebody's going to get killed,'” Ventimiglia said.
Ventimiglia has lived in the Glenwood Forest neighborhood for more than 25 years. He's also a well-known musician who performs as Big Mike. He says within the last year, he's noticed teenagers riding around on his street either on a four-wheeler or dirt bike with no helmet.
"If you're going to ride them, please at least try to obey the traffic laws and watch out for kids and old people in the neighborhood. We're all on our toes -- we're old. Something could happen, and that can affect a person’s life, the one that they hit," he said.
The speed limit in the neighborhood is 25 mph, but he says the teens are doing 30 to 40 mph. He's worried one day, someone will get seriously hurt, and he's not the only concerned about this issue. He took to Facebook to compare notes.
"It must have been 20 people say, 'Oh, yeah, it's the same thing here. If you find out who to report it to, we've all tried and nobody does anything,'" he said.
Ventimiglia says he got a hold of one officer with the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.
"'Isn't there something you can do about that?' He said, 'Yeah, if you can catch them doing it, but we're never around when they're doing it,'” said Ventimiglia.
Four-wheelers can be legally operated only on private property or on roads and trails clearly marked for off-road use. Dirt bikes can be street legal if they have mirrors, headlights, tail and brake lights, a muffler, and properly registered.