Police ID dirt-biker killed just days before crackdown

Police have identified a man killed after crashing his dirt bike last week in West Philadelphia as Marvin Ware, 25, of Overbrook.

Ware, of Oxford Street near 61st, lost control of his 2009 Kawasaki dirt bike as he sped on Girard Avenue near Belmont, hit a trolley median and was thrown from his bike just before 7 p.m. Thursday, police spokeswoman Officer Tanya Little said. He died at the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania a half hour later. Records didn't specify if he was wearing a helmet. The Belmont Plateau is a popular, albeit illicit, area for dirt-bike and ATV riders to congregate and ride.

Ware's death came just days before the Philadelphia Police Department launched a crackdown on dirt-bikers and ATV'ers riding illegally in city streets and parks. Starting this week, anyone caught with an ATV or dirt bike on any public property, whether moving or mobile, will have their vehicle seized, under a city law passed in October and enacted in March. The offender can retrieve their vehicle, with proof of ownership, by paying a $2,000 fine after a hearing, or forfeit it to the city, which will have it crushed for disposal.