The day Five Points became a riot zone

Tuesday will mark the 30th anniversary of the nation’s first gasoline riots in Levittown.

On a hot Saturday afternoon about 5 p.m. June, 23, 1979, Bristol Township police officer Bob Hairhoger was responding to an accident on New Falls Road near Red Cedar Drive.

What would transpire a few moments later would grab international headlines, result in hundreds of arrests and nearly 200 police officers battling with protesters because of the second Arab oil embargo, which dried up tanks throughout the country.

It began as a peaceful protest against the high price and availability of diesel fuel with a truckers’ convoy from Falls to support a small group of demonstrators at Five Points, the intersection of three roads in the center of Levittown in Bristol Township. The Five Points gas riots occurred 30 years ago this Tuesday and Hairhoger, now retired, recalled every moment as if it occurred today.

“I was headed to the accident down on New Falls Road. I approached the intersection and there was a tractor [trailer] stopped and I could not get through. I told him to get that truck outta there. The trucker’s name was Tom Hayden. I told him if anyone is hurt at that wreck and I can’t get there, I am coming back to lock him up,” said Hairhoger, who now works part time for his former employer.

Hairhoger has the distinction of being the first officer at the scene, which swelled with people throughout that first night, during what became a full-blown riot with rocks and bottles being thrown and fires set.

Bucks County Courier Times