In Summerhill, residents call for Garda action against guys roaring around on dangerous scramblers

A video from 5 June shows three drivers on scramblers racing down the dual carriageway on Summerhill, crossing a red light and swinging around to speed back up the other side of the road – pulling wheelies as they go.

In another video, from 19 June, a driver on a scrambler breaks a red light and threads his way through a crowd of crossing pedestrians, on the same stretch, and wheelies onwards.

In May, Garda Assistant Commissioner Angela Willis told councillors at the Dublin City Joint Policing Committee that Gardaí are really committed to tackling dangerous and illegal scramblers in the city.

Yet residents around Summerhill say the problem is only getting worse. Reckless driving is leaving residents walking around this part of the north inner-city really worried for their safety, some say.

“Why is the Irish government failing to intervene to keep the public safe?” wrote one resident –  who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation – to the Minister for Justice, Fine Gael TD Helen McEntee in July.

“It’s like living in an alternate universe” where no laws apply, they said.

The resident forwarded six videos all taken this summer showing people driving up and down Summerhill at speed on back wheels, some breaking red lights and driving through pedestrians, often with no helmets or licence plates.

If a driver loses control of their bike it will fly into a crowd of people and could injure or even kill someone, says the resident.

“This is what I mean about the alternate universe,” they said. “If I go out and steal a motorbike and tear around the city centre, at speed, on the footpaths and through pedestrians … I’m untouchable unless the police can catch me while I’ve stopped the motorbike.”

Weaving through pedestrians

The local resident says he wants Dublin City Council to carry out consultation with the local community on the issue. But a written response he received on 26 August indicated that that won’t happen, he says.

“An Garda Síochána are members of the Transport Advisory Group (TAG), receiving the agenda of reports and recommendations for the monthly meeting which they attend,” says the council response. “This issue will be raised at the next scheduled meeting.”

Says the resident: “In other words the local community, the people most affected by this, have no voice in the decision.”

Dangerous scramblers is the kind of problem that might be expected to fall under the remit of the Local Community Safety Partnership for the area.

A community safety plan drawn up by the partnership for the north inner-city last year doesn’t specifically mention scramblers or dangerous driving of motorbikes.

It identifies other five priority areas, among them, tackling on-street drug dealing and associated anti-social behaviour, and making the area safe for children and families.

The local resident has two ideas for tackling scramblers to be considered, he says.

He has asked the Minister for Justice to introduce new rules based on guidance introduced in England and Wales, to allow specially trained police to tackle illegal motorbike drivers, he says.

At the moment, gardaí are reluctant to chase motorbike drivers due to safety concerns, he says.

He also wants Dublin City Council to install speed bumps on Summerhill to slow down drivers. The council is considering doing that, correspondence shows.

Social Democrats Councillor Daniel Ennis backed that call. The north inner-city feels more and more lawless, says Ennis, and the “scrambler scourge” is a major part of that.

He was walking on the footpath there recently, he says, with his partner and children when a motorbike drew up onto the path.

“I heard the roar, it was a big motorbike,” he says. He grabbed the children and jumped out of the way, he says.

He also witnessed two motorbikes roaring up and down Sean McDermott Street nearby, doing wheelies for 20 minutes, he says. “It is madness.”

The Department of Justice didn’t respond before publication to a query sent Friday evening.

A Garda spokesperson said in July: “Pursuing offending vehicles involves careful consideration of various factors, such as environmental conditions, the nature of the offence, and risks to public safety including Gardaí.”

“Despite concerns about the reluctance of Gardaí to chase offenders due to potential prosecutions following chases, the DMR [Dublin Metropolitan Region] emphasizes their commitment to arresting individuals using scramblers illegally,” said the spokesperson.

More solutions

Gardai were recently given greater powers to tackle scramblers.

On 20 May, the new Road Traffic (Electric Scooters) Regulation was brought in, said Willis, the garda assistant commissioner, at the Dublin City Joint Policing Committee.

That prohibits the use of scramblers and scooters by children under 16 years in a public place, and they can’t go faster than 20kph.

It’s “a very important piece of regulations for us and we will be implementing that”, said Willis.

But residents say other changes are needed.

The resident who wrote to the Minister for Justice called on her to examine the guidance issued to police in the UK.

In the UK, police work under guidance from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which advises that “tactical contact” is a legitimate use of force for trained police drivers where authorised.

“Tactical contact is used by appropriately trained police drivers to end a pursuit by making deliberate contact with mopeds ridden by suspected criminals,” says a post on the IOPC website published in 2019.

The resident says this is just one possible idea that could be explored. “The point is that no ideas are coming forward from the government and nothing is being done to address this worsening problem.”

Ennis, the Social Democrats councillor, says that people who grew up in the north inner-city feel it is much more unsafe now than years past. “It’s definitely got much worse.”

People are coming into the north inner-city from other deprived areas to sell drugs, he says. “Because it is that easy and that lucrative.”

Some of them come in on scramblers, he says.

If Gardaí continue to ignore the illegal use of scramblers and open drug dealing in the area, that contributes to an overall sense of lawlessness.  “We can’t let the lawlessness continue,” he says. “It’s scary.”

He plans to raise multiple issues with senior gardaí in an upcoming meeting, he said, and the “scrambler scourge” is top of his list.

CORRECTION: This article was updated at 9am on 30 August 2024 to correct an editing error around the speed at which e-scooters and scramblers can now go, from 20mph to 20kph. Sorry for the error.