Sa Hoons Caught

[Mitch-BA]

Hello this story was on the front page of the sunday mail in adelaide today.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/s...6-2682,00.html



GANGS of hoons in their hundreds are seizing control of major Adelaide streets in the dead of night to run high-speed drag races and burnout competitions.

A Sunday Mail investigation has revealed a highly organised world of dangerous drivers who use vehicle road blocks and lookouts with CB radios to avoid interference from police.

Frustrated officers have admitted they are fighting a war against hoons, who regularly congregate in their hundreds to drag race and do burnouts in suburban areas.

Convoys of hoons - including two witnessed by the Sunday Mail - are moving from area to area - often over many hours and from south of the city to the north. Ordinary motorists who make it past sentries are often forced to swerve out the way of skidding cars and walls of smoke from lines of cars doing burnouts.

Police say it is only a matter of time until more lives are lost and they are now being trained to spot hi-tech illegal modifications as hoons become more cunning.

Supt Anthony Fioravanti, the officer in charge of Port Adelaide local service area, said illegal street racing and hoon behaviour was becoming more highly organised.

"It's well known that they use lookouts and text regularly to let each other know where police are," he said. "In the old days, you might have someone doing a burnout to show off in front of someone, but now people are actually leaving home with burnout tyres on the back of their car.

"There's no doubt what their intent is and that's to raise havoc and do big burnouts."

One of two car club cruises attended by the Sunday Mail ended with a major highway being taken over by up to 100 cars taking turns shredding tyres with burnouts and circle work.

The other led to a series of crashes as cars peeled out of suburban shopping centre car parks.

Police are now investigating a series of incidents that occurred at last weekend's All Car Club cruise, including a ute deliberately smashed into a tree while a man held on in the tray.

It is believed the same ute was later used to do circle work in the centre of the road while several men hung on to the back. In recent months, police have discovered:

A DRIVER doing burnouts while a drunken mate clung on the car's roof.

ANOTHER driver who had installed two windscreen wiper tanks that released an oil and water mix over the back wheels of his ute. The system was operated by a button under the dash.

MECHANICAL workshops which will - for a fee - replace illegally modified components with standard ones so hoons can get a defect notice lifted.The mechanic will later reinstall the illegal parts.

HOONS compiling online databases of car parts that can be borrowed to get defect notices overturned.

A CAR with rear brakes disabled to allow it to spin better during burn-outs when the front brakes are locked.

A spate of horror car crashes in March and April forced police and the State Government to consider toughening laws - including crushing the cars of repeat offenders.

Minh Bui, 23, died when his WRX hit a Stobie pole on Magill Rd during a race that allegedly reached speeds of more than 150km/h.

The driver of the second car, Ricardo Rocha, 22, lost his leg in the March 28 accident.

Two weeks later, Tom Brooks, 22, was killed when a drag racer smashed into his car on Torrens Rd at Woodville North.

As the hoon culture takes hold, drivers are using the internet to post pictures and video clips of their escapades. Big Burnout Hoons creator Peter Barnes told the Sunday Mail it was "just a bit of male testosterone - my car is better than your car type of thing".

"Its fun. Its just showing what your car is made of," he said.

The group's Facebook site is filled with photographs, videos and crude remarks.

"Hmm, I got done for doing donuts ... and tried to tell the cops it werent me," one member wrote.

"$800 fine, then yesterday got done for going sideways out of the Northgate car park and the coppas reckon they did 110 trying to catch me ... so this is my kind of group."

Another member was even more boastful: "Media Mike Rann can suck my b... I hoon up (and) down out the front of his house." Constable Neil Hastie, of Port Adelaide, has become the target of online abuse because of his knowledge of high-powered cars.

Local hoons know he will spot their hidden modifications.

But Const Hastie has also put in countless hours working with car clubs to encourage safe driving.

Port Adelaide police were recently handed the 2009 Road Safety Award for their efforts with hoon drivers.

"I just don't want to do another doorknock," Const Hastie said.

"It's the worst thing you can do.

"And I've been on both sides of it."

He said mass meetings of hoon drivers happened regularly across suburban Adelaide and were usually organised by text message or email.

"Now they are even using CB radios to co-ordinate," he said. "Sometimes they will be doing burnouts at one end of a car park and they'll have people at the other end moving their vehicles to actively get in the way so police can't get over there.

"I was forecasting these (fatal) crashes 18 months to two years ago.

"It is increasing ... because it's happening in built up areas and areas where people are around."

Port Adelaide Senior Sergeant Jane Kluzek said hoon drivers had not been deterred by the recent spate of horror car crashes - not even those who knew the people killed.

"It's a case of it won't happen to me," she said. "They get a certain amount of notoriety from that and that increases their risk taking behaviour."

Const Hastie said there were two types of car clubs - those run by hoons and others for car enthusiasts.

"You've got clubs like the Street Machine Association of South Australia. They run family events," he said.

"They have a lot of cars, a lot of money and in terms of offences they are not a problem. But other clubs - the irresponsible clubs - will have upwards of 200 cars and they just go out to have a good time and cause trouble in a lot of different ways.

"And that includes burnouts, drag racing and antics that you wouldn't believe if you saw it.

"In March, I got one guy who had his friend on the roof hanging on while he was doing a burnout. The mate, if he'd been driving, would have been done for drink driving with the amount of alcohol in him. For them it's just a bit of fun but it's going to kill someone one day."

Police have been working with responsible car clubs and have even attended their events to discuss what modifications are allowed.

He said these clubs would discipline or exclude members driving recklessly at organised events.

Adelaide woman Katrina Barnes is involved with several car clubs that work with police to keep their events safe. She said she and her friends are often the target of abuse because of the vehicles they drive. "We are car enthusiasts, not hoons," the 23-year-old said.