Street Vibrations causes few disruptions

Carson City fared well in what turned out to be a relatively mellow Street Vibrations weekend.

From the Carson City sheriff's and fire departments, to the local office of the highway patrol, incidents of motorcycle-related lawlessness "could be counted on one hand," Chief Deputy Scott Burau said.

Despite the fact that all hotel rooms in Carson City were booked from Thursday through Sunday, drunken driving incidents were at normal levels and the local interruptions were mostly related to the increase in vehicle traffic.

"If you add one car to this city's roads, that causes a problem, so it was expected that we would have traffic delays when we added 4,000 to 6,000 vehicles," Burau said. "We ran full shifts all weekend and most of the calls that we got were related to bikes parked on sidewalks or obstructing traffic."

No extra sheriff's department patrols were added in Carson City to compliment the Reno event.

Besides hotel occupancy, the only other traceable change was in the number of local vehicle accidents. Fire Battalion Chief Richard Chrzanowski said his department responded to 11 motorcycle-related accidents between Wednesday and Sunday. Five people - two car drivers and three motorcyclists - were taken to Carson-Tahoe Hospital during the four-day stretch. One fatality was reported Friday after a crash on Spooner Summit.

Of the event-related accidents, three occurred on Spooner Summit. Frank Lafrienier, 58, of Portland, Ore., was the motorcyclist killed Friday. According to family members, he was here for Street Vibrations.

In Northern Nevada, CareFlight, the emergency air ambulance that runs from Washoe Medical Center to outlying areas, responded to 13 motorcycle-accidents.

Nevada Highway Patrol statistics on citations and accidents were not immediately available, however Capt. Larry Woodson said extra patrols were added for the weekend.

"We canceled days off," he said. "It probably resulted in 20 to 30 percent more officers," he said. The extra presences was funded by the city of Reno and the Street Vibrations organization."

Carson highway patrol officers said the number of citations were not significantly larger than on a typical weekend.

There were no drunken driving checkpoints in the Reno/Carson areas.

The biggest criminal activity in Reno was the theft of 14 Harley-Davidson motorcycles, according to the Reno Police Department. Investigators suspect the perpetrator used a truck to haul the motorcycles away. No arrests have been made.

Between motorcyclists and increased traffic through Mound House, brothels had a marked increase in business this weekend, said Dennis Hof, owner of Moonlite Bunnyranch and Kitty's Guest Ranch.

"We did a lot of beer business, about $3,000 on Saturday," he said. "The sex business increased by about one-third. And more couples came to party this weekend."

He said the brothels were not scheduled stops along any 'motorcycle run' routes this year.

Statistics for tax revenue from motel rentals and increased sales will be available next month, said Carson City Convention and Visitor's Bureau Executive Director Candy Duncan.

The last time Carson City sold out rooms at all 25 motels was the weekend to the Silver Dollar Car Classic at the beginning of August.