Street racing or just dodgy cars?

You need a special restricted hire car licence and special rego on your car to legally drive paying passengers to formals (and weddings).

While this is true, if you are driving you little sister in your “fully sick” commodore, then you don’t….

[i]ACT Rego, with AFP apparently in tow, took inordinate interest in the vehicles delivering partygoers to St Claire’s formal last night.

Vehicle details were recorded, I suspect with the view that any vehicle cool enough to be used for a formal HAS to be illegally modified, so a trip over the pits, causing inconvenience and cost to the owner, is definately in order.[/i]

You need a special restricted hire car licence and special rego on your car to legally drive paying passengers to formals (and weddings). That is probably what the cops were checking, as well as anti social stuff like burnouts.

Burnouts are stupid and noisy at the best of times, and that’s prt of the reason legislators and coppers react to them. There is also a significant danger issue, with some components being stressed to a point where failure is much more likely – and this is probably more likely when the cars are already old and being driven by morons. I’m all in favour of a quick police reaction on this one.

Seize the car. Allow the idiot to drive if and only if he (and it’s almost always a he) agrees to paint it pink and daub it with slogans suggesting that (a) he’s an idiot and (b) he’s gay.

Put a besa-block at an inconvenient place on the road. Those going the speed limit will naturally have time to dodge the obstacle.

Reduces hoon activity to 0 in about 3 crashes.

Bd84,

Lets just say Sonic is some years my junior!

My gripe is the inequality of penalty for this particular offence compared with any other.

First of all the story implies that the driver of the one nut car (or driver) was doing something illegal before they pulled it over, if you don’t understand that in the first place..

As for confiscating cars, it’s a great idea. If they keep doing it the modifications (if any) should be removed and the car sold, return half the value to the owner and the other half should be paid as a fine and cover costs. Crushing the car as they’re proposing in NSW seems a little extreme at this time, will probably pose problems in the amounts of money being wasted.

And cranky you shouldn’t have any problems with the penalties being handed out, unless you’re one of the morons doing the burnouts, plus I think you will find if you’re a repeat offender you end up in court anyway.

I’d rather the police were policing this kind of stuff, anti-social stuff, rather than what they currently do (not sure what that is, actually).This is the stuff that directly affects so many of us.

Nope- no police have ever attended despite complaints to police from myself and other neighbours.

Like speeding and speed cameras, drivers know the penalty and can choose whether to break the law or not- quite simple really.

I have already expressed my opinion regarding burnouts.

My problem is that, unlike other motor traffic infringements, the fine in this case is instantly set by the Police at many, many thousands of dollars, being the value of the vehicle, and has nothing to do with any court adjudicated penalty.

The fact that the burnouts have stopped in your case is probably more a case of Police action, which may previously not have occurred.

Cranky – tell me your address, so I can come around and do burnouts out the front of your house from 10pm-3am every Sat night – I might even bring 10 of my mates.

That’s what we put up with for over 12 months before the behaviour came to an end when these laws came in.

Police already issue penalties for other traffic offences without it going to court, I see no difference.

Perhaps these confiscation laws are a glaring admission that the ACT Courts are not handing down sentences the ACT Government approves of.

Allowing ACT Police to be judge, jury and executioner neatly sidesteps the embarassment of having to appeal supposedly inadequate sentences.

Take it a step further. Allow Police free hand to judge all misdemeanors, and automatically impose a sentence already decided by Sonic and Co.

I think the laws are great.
Our house backs on to a dead end long straight road with no traffic – mecca for street hoons.

When we first moved in two years ago, we had numerous cars each weekend doing burnouts and racing each other. We had a car hit the power pole 20m from our bedroom window.

Since the laws were brought in the hoon activity has dropped significantly – occasionally there is an idiot, but not every weekend as it was before.

ChrisinTurner, what is your rationale behind that? If i modify my car, legally, and it makes more noise I should lose it? Yeah, I think that is a splendid idea.

unless it is already a harley, whereupon it should be confiscated anyway…

mebbe the car with one wheel nut was one of those racing-style rims with only one central nut anyway – sensational reporting, mebbe?

Anyone who modifies a vehicle to make more noise than when manufactured should have it confiscated, as happens in Europe.

And yet the eardrum-shattering Harleys continue unabated. in terms of nuisence value, surely these rowdy, modified things are much worse than hoonish cars?

ACT Rego, with AFP apparently in tow, took inordinate interest in the vehicles delivering partygoers to St Claire’s formal last night.

Vehicle details were recorded, I suspect with the view that any vehicle cool enough to be used for a formal HAS to be illegally modified, so a trip over the pits, causing inconvenience and cost to the owner, is definately in order.

Sonic: Just what the hell problem do you have with motoring enthusiasts? You claim these blitzes save lives & eradicate hoon behaviour, but aren’t they simply a smokescreen for giving car nuts a really hard time?

You cannot justify the confiscation of a valuable vehicle, because it was used to make a noise, with any other penalty applied by the law. You can drive, having never gained a license, with false number plates, disregard Police, run red lights, kill a fellow motorist, AND IT DOSN”T COST YOU A PENNY. In fact, you get a suspended sentance.

Let me make it clear. I do not condone burnouts. They may not hurt anyone, but like most, the noise tits me to shears!

But your heavyhanded bureaucratic remedy will only decrease any respect the younger generation may have had for the authorities.

How about some positive action to allow venues for drags/burnouts/racing? No other interest group is so poorly served by your government.