Road roulette: Plea for cameras to stop boy racers
A group of Banks Peninsula residents frequently woken in the middle of the night by noisy boy racers say the problem is only getting ‘‘worse and worse’’ and are pleading for noise-activated speed cameras to be installed.
The six Canterbury residents from Governors Bay, Rapaki and Cass Bay recorded 233 instances of anti-social driving, including excessive noise from exhausts and screeching tyres during a three-week period in November and December last year.
Cass Bay resident Gary Freedman said boy racers using the roads as a ‘‘racetrack’’ caused their windows to shake at all hours of the night.
The issue, which has plagued locals for years, was only getting ‘‘worse and worse’’ as exhausts got louder and the hours of boy racing activity expanded, he said.
‘‘It used to be Friday and Saturday nights for a couple of hours, but now even at two o’clock in the morning on a Monday or Tuesday you have people racing through.
‘‘It’s always been looked at as kids just being kids and no harm is done, but that’s not the case any more.’’
Group member Scott Adams said he hears drivers race through the bays well over the speed limit, turn around, idle back and then race through again.
‘‘They’re obviously timing themselves or racing against each other, and this can happen at three in the morning,’’ Adams said.
The group keeps a record of when they hear boy racers to help Lyttelton police and the local community patrol target the best times to monitor the road, but said the area cannot be watched all the time.
They’re calling for council and police to install noise
activated and licence plate recognition speed cameras to act as ‘‘a constant presence’’ to deter antisocial behaviour.
Since September, police impounded nine cars in Governors Bay and prosecuted their owners. They previously thanked the community for their help which ‘‘allowed police to obtain sufficient evidence to impound and green sticker these vehicles’’.
A green sticker is issued to vehicles with road compliance issues. A vehicle is required to pass a new objective noise test every time it is ordered off the road for non-compliant exhaust noise.
‘‘If [police] know that the car is making too much noise – as they did with the nine cars at Governors Bay – they can impound those cars, and getting them back on the road is a real amount of fuss for the owner,’’ Adams said.
For a vehicle to get a warrant of fitness, the noise coming from an exhaust system must be similar to or less than the noise it made when the vehicle was manufactured.
Governors Bay resident Rosie Belton strongly backs the group’s plea for speed cameras, but said it was not just boy racers causing grief.
She said she was running the ‘‘risk of serious injury almost daily‘‘ from ‘‘loony motorcycle driving’’, and speeding drivers and cyclists.
‘‘We’re begging for cameras. By the time you call the police they’re gone. They have to be caught on camera.’’
Belton said lowering the speed limit through Governors Bay to 40kph like Lyttelton would also create ‘‘consistency’’.
‘‘It maddens me that we have to play this roulette on the road, and you can’t get their number plates because they’re going so fast,’’ Belton said.
Police ask people who witness antisocial driving behaviour to call 111 if it’s happening now, or 105 if it’s afterward.