DE - troopers cracking down on motorcycle safety

Delaware troopers cracking down on motorcycle safety
By Robin Brown
The News Journal

ELSMERE — Police and safety officials today are starting a crackdown on speeding and reckless motorcycle driving, but say the effort was planned well before a weekend crash left one motorcyclist fighting for his life.

Police disclosed Monday that a trooper tried to stop the speeding motorcyclist just before he crashed near Elsmere.

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Elvis Cruz, 34, of Sandalwood, off Salem Church Road in the Ogletown area, remained in critical condition Monday at Christiana Hospital.

Delaware State Police spokesman Cpl. Jeff Whitmarsh said the case illustrates the need for the crackdown, dubbed Operation Aggressive Cycle Enforcement, or ACE.

About 9 p.m. Saturday, a state trooper from Troop 6 at Prices Corner first spotted Cruz speeding north on Basin Road (Del. 141) in the Belvedere area near Del. 62, Whitmarsh said.

The trooper tried to pull over Cruz, who moved his 2001 Suzuki to the shoulder and began to slow down, Whitmarsh said. Then he suddenly sped away, he said.

The trooper radioed the cycle's description and direction of travel. Another trooper, stopped on Del. 141's shoulder a short distance to the north, reported that the motorcycle sped by him, he said. Cruz crashed moments later, he said, and arriving troopers "recognized the bike as the very one that fled from them."

Although Operation ACE was being planned by Delaware State Police, the state Office of Highway Safety and others for some time, Whitmarsh said, "this case highlights the dangers of speeding and reckless driving on motorcycles."