Tignish aims to get ATVs off street with law reminder

The community council in Tignish hosted RCMP for a presentation on the law surrounding riding all-terrain vehicles.

About 30 community members came out for a public meeting Thursday evening.

"A certain amount of ATV users are creating a problem here in the community," said community chair Allan McInnis.

"They use the streets in the community as if it was legal for them to drive on, but it isn't."

RCMP Corp. Scott Lundrigan said it is clear more education is required on the rules.

"Many parts of this legislation are not known," said Lundrigan.

"Our hope is that by putting word out there it will spread."

Lundrigan said in addition to illegally using streets and highways, many ATV drivers are not aware that you must be at least 14 to ride.

Local resident Roy Pedersen said he found the information session helpful, but he thought some of the laws are excessive.

"If you start the stupid things up you're breaking the law, pretty near," said Pedersen.

Police say the legislation isn't easy to enforce, but by getting the information out there the hope is that ATV users won't break the law in the first place.