2006: Boy racers’ reign of terror
Boy racers – they were the scourge of Christchurch.
‘‘Fed-up police are promising an unprecedented crackdown on boy racers as they admit past efforts to get them off the streets have largely failed,’’ The Press reported on July 26, 2006.
‘‘They say their patience with Christchurch’s boy-racer fraternity has run out, and that enforcement, not education, is now their priority.
‘‘However, boy racers claim it will take more than ticketing police to get them to stop their night-time antics.
‘‘Canterbury’s road policing manager, Inspector Derek Erasmus, yesterday told The Press that policing of boy racers had been stepped up in response to their continued strong presence in the city, a lack of co-operation from them, and strongly voiced public concern.
‘‘At the weekend, terrified Templeton residents demanded police do more to tackle boy racers after about 500 spectators lined a straight stretch of rural Hasketts Road to watch illegal burnouts and street racing. They left behind a trail of damage.’’
One resident said: ‘‘It’s just increasing and getting totally out of hand. The police should just block off both ends and do a sting.’’
Figures obtained by The Press showed that in the previous 12 months, Canterbury police enforced 20 per cent of the country’s prosecutions for offences including street racing, burnouts and pouring a slippery substance on a road.
Erasmus said boy-racer offences contributed to about 2 per cent of road crashes, injuries or death, but received a disproportionate amount of police attention.
He said: ‘‘On the basis of that, we would spend 2 to 2.5 per cent of our time policing them, but the reality is they get a much greater proportion of our time than that. In the weekends, quite often, that’s all we do.’’