Kenneth Proveaux, Of Gerritsen Beach, Dies In ATV Accident While Off-Roading In Marine Park
Gerritsen Beach resident Kenneth Proveaux, 49, died yesterday following an off-roading accident on an ATV in the Marine Park ballfields along Gerritsen Avenue.
Proveaux, a Beacon Court neighbor, was riding an all terrain vehicle (ATV) in the Marine Park ballfields off Gerritsen Avenue and Florence Avenue yesterday evening. He struck a cement block at approximately 9:49pm, throwing him from the four-wheeled bike, and striking his head on another cement block, according to the NYPD’s Collision Investigation Squad.
Cops arrived in response to a 911 call, and found Proveaux with severe head trauma. He was brought to Coney Island Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
ATVs – or quads – are not street legal in New York City, and their use in city parkland is forbidden except where signage indicates otherwise. That includes Marine Park and the parklands around Gerritsen Beach, where illegal off-roading is popular enough to have earned a mention on Wikipedia. Drivers race and do stunts both on the road, in the weeds and on sand dunes.
Despite the popularity, neighbors claim it’s a nuisance and have been trying to get police to ramp up enforcement for years, leading to occasional crackdowns. Community leaders have pointed to damage it has done to the baseball and soccer fields.
They’ve also been spotted drag racing and doing dangerous tricks at the end of Gerritsen Avenue:
Several of the concrete blocks near the ballfields, similar to those Proveaux crashed into, were painted in 2010 with warnings that ATV and motorcycle riding is not permitted.
