Hoon hell: ‘We’re waiting for clunk’
RESIDENTS are selling up and moving out of the Gold Coast’s northern suburbs because of nightly torment from hoons, according to an MP.
Theodore MP Mark Boothman said residents could no longer live with the noise and fear caused by regular drag races and burnouts by mostly juvenile offenders.
Maudsland woman Lisa Smith, who lives near a hoon hotspot at Guanaba Creek Rd, said her six-year-old daughter was regularly woken by the noise. But her greatest concern was that someone would be killed.
“When a car is doing burnouts it makes a heck of a racket,” she said. “It wakes the children up. Ten o’clock at night you start to hear it. You hold your breath, waiting for the clunk (of a car crash), thinking you might have to rush out to help.”
Mr Boothman said it was “the same story night after night” in suburbs such as Upper Coomera, Maudsland, Pacific Pines and Gaven.
“We even have residents who end up selling their homes as they can’t sleep without the fear of a speeding vehicle losing control and flying into their houses,” he said.
“Residents don’t blame the police, they know they have limited resources … Hoons are not the owners of the well-cared-for machines that have had big dollars spent on them – they are generally the clapped-out, or stolen, often
unroadworthy deadly missiles waiting for an accident to happen,” Mr Boothman said.
Police said Maudsland was not considered a hoon hot spot, with 29 traffic complaints in the area since July 2020.
Acting Chief Superintendent Rhys Wildman said police “do not tolerate” hooning and had been using a variety of methods to clamp down on the problem.
“Since March 2021, Operation Tango Vinyl has resulted in 29 vehicles being seized, more than 129 people arrested for hooning offences such as dangerous driving and 470 tickets issued,” he said.
Superintendent Wildman urged residents to report hooning activities to 13HOON.
Ms Smith said police were quick to respond to incidents, but was concerned by a lack of “consequences” for offenders. She has started a petition to the Queensland parliament calling for tougher action to be taken by magistrates.
“I’ve only got positive things to say about QPS, they have been fantastic,” Ms Smith said. “… But often, if they do manage to catch them, they get charged, they go through the court system and the court goes ‘naughty, naughty’ and they’re out again. The courts are just
letting them go. What are the police supposed to do?
“… Only about six weeks ago some young kids took a car and left it at the end of Guanaba Creek Rd. They were in and out of the court system so fast. They were charged, they were taken in, and within two days they were out again.”
Ms Smith said she was starting the petition because she was concerned the young people involved in hooning would seriously injure themselves or others. “Young kids around here are going to loathe me for doing it. But I’d rather they hate me and be alive than end up in hospital.”