CBS2 Exclusive: Teen Daredevil Admits Staten Island Stunt Spree Went Too Far
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Thrill-seekers on two wheels have been putting the general public at risk.
There have been growing complaints that teenagers are causing danger in the streets. People say they're riding bikes in places like the paths of incoming buses.
CBS2 first told viewers about the problem last winter, and drivers say it's still happening.
"We all go out together, and we all ride to have fun," biker Vincent Barrile said, speaking exclusively with CBS2's Dave Carlin.
Barrile, 17, of Staten Island likes the attention he gets for daredevil maneuvers on the streets that his friends capture on video and share online.
"When you're riding, I got a feeling that no sport I've played or anything gives me," he said.
But he admitted that his stunts went too far.
A video on his instagram page from June shows him swerving in front of 2 MTA buses, risking his own life, and the lives of others.
Police also have a photo of him taken by a driver on Arden Ave earlier this month. It show Barrile popping a wheelie inches from a car.
He was arrested, and charged with riding a bicycle on roadways, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct, and criminal nuisance.
"It was for my own sake, and I did something wrong," he said.
He was taken in handcuffs to the 123rd precinct station house in Tottenville, and kept in a cell for more than 24 hours.
Across the city, young bicycle riders are taking part in what they call ride outs, swarming the streets, potentially alarming drivers to swerve and crash.
"They're gonna get hit by a car, they're crazy, those kids," John Amore said.
"Some of these kids are out of control, including my son," Vincent's mother Isabel said.
She worries the punishment for her son may be too severe.
"He's 17, he's been charged as an adult. The punishment should fit the crime. He didn't get hurt, nobody else got hurt, he learned his lesson, he's sorry for what he did," she said.
But has he learned his lesson?
"I've learned not to go out and ride my bike recklessly in the street," he said.
Vincent begins his junior year at Tottenville High School without a bike, and a vow to stay off of one and out of trouble.
Police on Staten island said they are cracking down on reckless riding, and said an effective deterrent is confiscating the bikes of teenagers they catch doing it.
