Police target boy racers
A new police team has been set up to target illegal street racing in Waikato.
Police are so far staying tightlipped on how they’ll be tackling those commonly dubbed boy racers and their wheel-spinning, dangerous driving behaviour, but tensions have been growing after a string of incidents.
In the most recent, on March 14, police were called to a gathering of people watching a driver doing burnouts on a rural intersection northwest of Morrinsville on Tauhei Rd.
Videos of the encounter, provided to Stuff, showed a man being carried on a police car’s bonnet for several metres, and angry people surrounding the police car, kicking it.
Late last year a man who lives near a car-meet hotspot on the edge of Hamilton admitted firing at eight vehicles with a .22 rifle over a period of two months.
At the time drivers reported being narrowly missed as bullets punched through their vehicles while residents described Rukuhia roads being left black with skidmarks after weekly boy racer meets attracting hundreds.
While the Morrinsville incident occurred in the eastern area, Waikato road policing manager Inspector Jeff Penno said they were aware of growing community concerns regarding boy racer activity in Te Awamutu.
After several recent incidents in the Waikato town, police had formed a new response to tackle boy racers. ‘‘We have an investigator working full time with a view to enforcement action in the near future.
‘‘This is reckless and dangerous behaviour that negatively impacts on the safety of all road users, but also affects the community in terms of noise, pollution and other negative behaviours.’’
Penno said police had created the new team a few weeks ago due to public concern and some high profile situations.
‘‘We are seeing some crashes come through and a lot of damage.’’
For the year to date there have been 254 cars impounded by Waikato police – 23 of those were as a result of illegal street racing.
Cars are impounded for up to 28 days.
The new team would be working with councils to look at changing road designs, but they had a number of other tactics they would be using, which Penno didn’t want to disclose.
‘‘It is prevention first. ‘‘Our key thing is to work with council and roading people to change the design of the road where these offences are occurring.
‘‘We can’t be everywhere all the time.’’