A Whitehorse resident who used his dirt bike on prohibited trails last summer, injuring a cyclist, was fined Tuesday in territorial court.

Arlen Neufeld had pleaded guilty to operating his dirt bike in a prohibited area under the city’s All-Terrain Vehicle Bylaw.

Justice of the peace Sharman Morrison-Harvey dismissed a charge of operating the vehicle without due care or attention. Neufeld had contested that charge.

He was fined $300 and ordered to pay more than $1,800 in restitution to the victim.

The victim, Dexter Kotylak, and his partner, Larissa Lychenko, testified by video from Toronto, where they study.

On the evening of June 23, Kotylak, Lychenko and two other friends were biking down the Lower Roller Coaster Trail on Grey Mountain.

Kotylak testified that, as he was coming around a corner to the right, he saw Neufeld, and both slammed on their brakes.

Neufeld went to his left, while Kotylak went to his right, hitting the rear end of the dirt bike.

Kotylak estimated both were going at about 30 kilometres per hour.

When told he wasn’t supposed to be there, Neufeld answered, “Everybody does it,” according to Kotylak.

Neufeld gave him his name and phone number.

Only once back at his vehicle did Kotylak realize he was injured: he couldn’t lift his bike back into the truck.

Later, at Whitehorse General Hospital, he found out his right wrist was strained and he had tissue damage to one of his knees.

The crash damaged the bicycle’s cranks and pedals.

A quote of $1,822 for repairs was presented to the court.

The crash happened very fast, Lychenko testified.

“We heard a loud engine roaring, then a grinding-crunching sound,” she said, later adding the two were only separated by a split second.

The shock sent Kotylak “far away” in the bushes she testified.

Neufeld’s answer that he wasn’t the only one driving an ATV in a prohibited area angered her, she testified. He quickly switched topics to congratulate Kotylak on his prompt reaction, giving him a high-five.

Bylaw Const. Kyle Morrison also took the stand.

He told the court there are two signs indicating the trails are prohibited to ATVs. One is at the beginning of a trail connecting to Lower Roller Coaster and one is on the Grey Mountain Road at the power line.

Morrison was contacted by Kotylak the day after the incident, and subsequently took a statement from him.

Motorized vehicles are banned on these trails to protect environmentally-sensitive areas, he told the court.

The justice of the peace dismissed the driving without due care charge.

The Crown didn’t put forward any evidence proving the charge, Morrison-Harvey ruled.

The fact that Neufeld was driving his dirt bike in a prohibited area isn’t enough to prove carelessness, said the JP.

Noting the defendant was self-represented, Morrison-Harvey took some time to advise him of what he could do.

She told him he could make a motion asking the court to dismiss the charge, since the burden was on the prosecution to prove it.

“Had he counsel, Neufeld would say there is no evidence for that count,” Morrison-Harvey told Crown prosecutor Claire Anderson.

The Crown noted the trail was only two to three metres wide and that Kotylak had testified Neufeld’s front wheel was “slightly off the ground” when the accident happened.

“He was (the one) out of control,” Neufeld shot back.

“He cut the corner and ended up on my right. I was able to stop before Dexter hit me even though my front wheel was in the air,” he told the court.

The trail map Neufeld had entered as evidence doesn’t suggest it was a one-directional trail, Morrison-Harvey noted.

“Nothing indicates either party was travelling at excessive speed,” she ruled.

In early July, the city released a statement about the accident, noting Neufeld had been fined for $700.

“So not only was he not where he was supposed to be; he wasn’t driving responsibly,” senior bylaw constable Tom Wyers said at the time about the driving without due care charge.