BOY RACERS WILL BE SILENCED
EXCLUSIVE City cops use hi-tech kit to snare noisy louts
POLICE are using special noise detectors to catch city centre boy racers.
Ear-splitting stereos, l oud exhausts and engine-revving helped officers to detect almost 50 alleged offences during a crackdown.
Residents are being disturbed by unacceptable exhaust and traffic
BOY racers who terrorise the city centre streets are being targeted with hi-tech equipment for measuring noise.
Blaring car stereos, noisy exhausts and needless revving of engines led to almost 50 alleged offences being detected during a police blitz.
Officers have received more than 200 noise complaints, in the past year, about the dozens of high-performance vehicles which gather near Pitt Street and the Blythswood area.
Specialist technology and environmental health officers were drafted in from Falkirk to target the reckless racers blazing a trail through the city centre.
Officers uncovered 48 alleged offences, during the past two weekends, including excessive speeding and road traffic offences.
Anti-social behaviour warnings, parking tickets, and fines for faulty exhausts were also handed out on Saturday and Sunday nights.
Parking attendants were also forced to ‘move on’ more than 50 souped-up vehicles during the operation.
Inspector Gavin Smith, who is leading the crackdown, said: “Four road crashes and more than 200 separate noise complaints since last April show the need for this action.
“My job is to keep people safe in Glasgow city centre.
“And my primary concern is that more than 50 high-performance cars touring through the city centre streets, which are full of pedestrians at night, is fundamentally unsafe.
“On top of that, residents and hotel guests are being disturbed by unacceptable exhaust and traffic noise, which goes on into the early hours of the morning from cars being driven round a ‘circuit’.
Hotel guests, who say they are kept awake by the noise of cars into the early hours, have threatened to boycott the city.
Inspector Smith added: “Hotel guests are left disappointed and are not slow to let everyone know what a poor impression of Glasgow they found during their visit.
“Sometimes they decide it’s their last visit.
“The public road is not for racing or rallying and I don’t think some of the drivers fully appreciate the impact this is having – or the risks.
“We are now working with our partners, including Glasgow City Council, Community Safety Glasgow and City Parking, to find a lasting solution.”
Senior officers vowed to go after the boy racers by using anti-social behaviour laws.
The Evening Times previ- ously revealed police will seize boy racers’ souped-up cars if they continue to pedestrians and other drivers are being put at risk.
In October, two young men cheated death when they ploughed through an electricity box, smashing into a city centre building.
Both the driver and passenger escaped without any injuries and were taken to hospital as a precaution.
A 21-year-old man was later reported to the procurator fiscal.