Hoon Laws

[Turbonator]

If they are going to take your car after the 3rd time, who is going to stop and let them take the car?

I wouldn't, you have nothing to loose running.

"You can run, but you can't hide"!

Thank you everyone for your responses. On the whole, they were quite intelligent. Only one person raised their hand. It seems that the definition of hooning is being questioned and not the law itself. Also, do the police have the right to say who is a hoon? Difficult question since we pay them to enforce the laws. It means that in order to promote change, we have to start at the legislative level and change the definition of hooning so that it is more realistic and fair.

So, instead of pissing and moaning, write to your local state MP and let him/her know your feelings on the issue. I totally agree that if you accidently squeal your tyres at a traffic light, you do not want to be slapped with a hooning offence.

I normally drive sedately to the bowls club, so I have nothing to worry about.

If they are going to take your car after the 3rd time, who is going to stop and let them take the car?

I wouldn't, you have nothing to loose running.

Fifteen years ago my best mates younger brother was killed by someone fleeing the police during a high speed chase. He left behind a wife and two young children. So, I have to disagree with you.

I do believe that drink/drug drivers are far more dangerous than those of us who enjoy driving high performance cars. Too many repeat drink/drug drivers are still on our roads. They are the ones who should have their vehicles crushed and not just a temporary loss of license and a slap on the wrist.

The hoon laws may be unjust and unfair, but judging from the responses, they are a deterrent.

Before retiring, I worked at a high school in NSW. Every year we lost young men and women in crashes that could/should have been avoided. Most of the crashes were caused by young people doing something stupid.

I personally feel that driver education should be taught in high school by qualified instructors and that students should spend an evening at a local hospital emergency ward watching accident victims being brought in. I did.

[Rhino1980]

I sit square with Rudiger on this in seeing things both ways.

Being an ex police officer as well I can see the need for tough laws on this. Then again, when I was in that job I always found that applying common sense to the situation was key to remaining human. You see, its a job where things are supposed to be cut straight in black or white. We all know life isn't like that though and there are many shades of gray. I'm sure we all went out into the industrial area when we were kids and explored our limits of car control. I caught plenty of them in the job and found the best course action was not always to apply the full extent of the law all of the time. Discretion is the Policeman's greatest ally, but even the right to use this is slowly being taken away from Police by policies and procedures. So I think 30 days for a first up is just another in a long parade of idiotic decisions bought on by politicians.

Times have changed too. When we were kids there were no restrictions on how many cylinders, whether you can have forced induction and no power-to-weight ratio limits. So we spent our money on going fast. I drove around in a Chev powered Q with open pipes and a locked diff that chirped every corner and never got touched. These days kids spend it on how there car looks and sounds (bloody woeful most of them, but it's there choice) and defecting them for minor crap is only going to breed contempt of the law. As long as its safe and they're not doing anything wrong, don't 'randomly' pull them over.

Last night I went down to Kooragang to see how things had changed, smell some fumes and look at some nice cars. LOL it was all garbage believe me, but the one thing that was blatantly bloody obvious was that these kids NEED somewhere to go and do this. So do us middle aged petrol heads as well. By introducing these laws they always put the ALL of the onus back on the community rather than doing what is right and necessary.

I'll be the first to admit sometimes I speed you don't even have to try in our cars, sometimes I have a little blat off the mark at the lights when some try hard wants to have ago, however I only ever do this when the roads are bare. And if I get caught, I'll cop it on the chin and treat the Police with respect.

[hypnodoc]

Welcome to the 4th Reich R8 Eater. I don't think we have even begun to see it unfold yet. If you think you have any rights you are kidding yourself because you need a fortune to pay lawyers to get past the burocrats that put all thios crap in place.

As for the greens, sure it is a good thing to look after the environment. But that doesn't justify their false GW science and the resulting grab for more taxes. The dirty unwashed tin rattlers from the WWF and the greens are akin to a new Hitler Youth Movement IMHO. I read a statement from one of their scum leaders the other day it was pretty close to this "It is more important to save an acre of rainforest then it is to save a 10 year old Phillipino child from prostitution" that's the irrational kind of idiots that have somehow ended up with some influence in the Govt. These filthy Eugenicists won't stop until we all live in caves and ride pushbikes. All of their ideals and policies are about eugenics and economic destruction.

Queen Joolia is always on about "The Nation" The Stralian People" "For The Good of The Country". Look back in history at what other leaders, puppets, and dictators said similiar things and what became of their nations.

[Rhino1980]

Don't forget "moving forward" lol

[Sleeper6T]

"Wyndham Highway Patrol detected a driver, 18, as he sped along Ballan Rd at 160km/h, 90km/h over the limit, on January 3.

Sen-Constable Matt Wilson, of the Wyndham Highway Patrol, said he was in disbelief when he sighted the speeding P-plater at 10.20pm.

He said the consequences of a crash would have been fatal.

The driver was fined $597 fine, lost eight demerit points and his licence was suspended for 12 months."

There is no doubt 30 days would be hard on anyone, especially if it was (as mentioned previously) mum or dads car that got impounded. The most irritating thing I believe is still the inconsistency of the court system and Magistrates that let personal feelings / beliefs dictate what sentance they hand out. Here we see an 18 year old driver doing 160km in a residential 70km zone and recieves a $600 fine, 8 points and 12 months walking.

I only this week got mylicense back after being charged under the hoon law doing the same speed in a 100km zone (still very stupid and very dangerous) I also lost the car for 48 hours, however recieved a $1000 fine, same amount of points but 18 months cancellation of license, and when you are told by your solicitor who charged me $2200 for his supposed expertise that even he thought I got rolled, it does not instill a great deal of faith in these men and women who sit and pass judgment so inconsistently.

Brad

[discostig]

Maybe you reminded the judge of a bloke that banged his missus? Got unlucky.

Should be the same penalty across the board though.

[01txr]

I know a child molester who got less Punishment then that.

Also a rapest, African refugee who raped a friends daughter who was also underage.

His solicitor apparently pleaded that he didn't know the girls age and that his client

Fled his country and had a very bad life hence why he came here.

So his had a bad life, just come to Australia and rape our children.

Sorry but yer he apparently got of with a 2y good behavior bond.

And the pollies want to destroy a persons life just because he got

Caught playing his kick ass car stereo system too loud on 3 occassions

Within a 3 year period.

Wish they would do there jobs and punish the real criminals.

Maybe be better to drink drive all the time as won't get your car crushed.

Can just blame the alcohol for the speeding or hanging the rear out.

Hopefully while intoxicated you accidentally crash into parliament house

And miraclessly you collect all penny pinches with your huge hoon vehicle.

Sleeper6t Not having ago out of you here but just to see a point.

So has your sentence helped you reform and not speed or has it just angered you

And taut you to be more cautious.

Has it helped in anyway of teaching you anything about the risks of your actions, has it helped

You to become a better safer driver.

Or less respect for the pollies and there puppets.

Now instead of being dealt with like you where, do you agree driver Ed and defensive driving would

Have been more helpful then what you got.

What do you feel would work.

Is it really nessisary to suspend a persons license that long, I know

I would get there point of don't hoon where it's easy to be caught

Just 2 days of not driving my car.

Will be interesting to hear your views on the punishment/Ed side

As you have faced the punishment.

[Sleeper6T]

Sleeper6t Not having ago out of you here but just to see a point.

So has your sentence helped you reform and not speed or has it just angered you

And taut you to be more cautious.

Has it helped in anyway of teaching you anything about the risks of your actions, has it helped

You to become a better safer driver.

Or less respect for the pollies and there puppets.

Now instead of being dealt with like you where, do you agree driver Ed and defensive driving would

Have been more helpful then what you got.

What do you feel would work.

Is it really nessisary to suspend a persons license that long, I know

I would get there point of don't hoon where it's easy to be caught

Just 2 days of not driving my car.

Will be interesting to hear your views on the punishment/Ed side

As you have faced the punishment.

Hey mate, can't really say I am angry as what I did was at the end of the day plain stupid. I have done a defensive driving course which I still use techniques from that today. I have gained a better respect for the road and it has changed the way I view myself as a driver. I do feel driver training would be beneficial to so many. One thing will never change and that is young people even older people in any kind of car whether it be performance or not will at some stage test the limits of their cars. It's like putting a lollie in front of a child and saying don't eat it. If all of the people killed on our roads relating to either speed or dangerous driving had been through some form of defensive driving course then I am sure lives could have been saved. At the end of the day it is about choices and the behaviour surrounding those choices. What makes someone decide in that split second (just as I did) to put their foot down or drive in a manor that does put lives at risk?

As far as my sentance was concerned I asked my solicitor to put forward that I'd be happy to re-sit my license even go back to learners and log the 100 hours, plus do community service, and pay a larger fine rather than lose my license, or to even reduce the cancellation time. I am not mad at the law or the laws that are put in place, we find ourselves in a society where people of all ages and experience are dying on our roads and like a parent that trys to teach or change the behaviour of their children, the government trys different ways which they believe will save lives by enforcing stricter consequences.

Is there inconsistency? Bloody oath there is !! not just in traffic law such as using my example versus that of the 18 year mentioned in this post, but in all forms of law. The rapist's getting off lightly, the armed robbers assulting innocent people, Murderers, Drug Dealers the list go's on. Our Judicial System needs a shake up and eyes need to be opened to really see what the effects of these inconsistencies are having on society. Due to the way a law is written, presedents are being set which is making it easy for someone to find a loop hole in the system.

Brad

[hypnodoc]

It must be bloody frustrating for the coppers who joined the force under the illusion that they were going to be able to do some good. What a terrible job having to hang about getting people to blow in bags or take their cars for silly offences that at the end of the day are highly dramatised and backed up by boffin idiots like that professor Johnson dickhead who came up with the nonsense of cut 5.

Its the real coppers I empathise with, what a demoralising job it must be making mountains out of molehills to justify stealing peoples money in the name of raod safety. The angry drunken red nosed coppers, who are usually the sargents have the PR skills of a block of wood and many need to be put out to pasture. I tell my kids now that the Policeman is your friend but only until you are 16 and never when you are driving a car. No wonder they can't recruit many any more and have to recruit South Africans and Kiwis to do the job.

I don't speed very often at all. I don't hoon, I don't drive pissed, and I don't feel sorry for those who get busted.

You can't blame all the coppers, they are just doing their job regardless of their attitude. It's the unseen individuals in the background making their jobs robotic with no or very little descretion left for the officer. I know 2 in WA WA land who left the force last year because of the changing rules for them. Another case in point, when I re registered my car last year WA WA land was busy telling everybody that they were taking away rego stickers to save a few million a year. However the bloke at the transport dept openly told me it was so that Police WERE NOW OBLIGATED do a plate check on you if they pulled you and also it justified putting cameras on every set of traffic lights and on a lamposts every 2 klm on high density traffic roads.

All of this nonsense is being justified by thinly veiled lies about driver and road safety. The economics of it speak volumes and make no sense at all, and the police on the front line (or at the nazi checkpoints) have to cop the brunt of it. If it keeps up soon all the decent police will be gone and the force will be full of mongrels who take glee in persecuting all and sundry. Then again perhaps that's exactly what the powers that be want, there is a lot more behind this than just road safety.

Edited 23/01/11 02:50 AM by hypnodoc

[Arkayne]

In Northern Territory, first offense was 24 hours.. they now took that up to 48 hours. Second offense is 6 MONTHS.. yes, MONTHS. And third offense; crushed car.

Hooning here is if they catch you planting your foot to speed, other then catching you actually "speeding".. which is still stupid.

Burn outs, wheel spin at the lights (they got me once doing this, but it's pretty hard to NOT wheelspin off the lights with such kilowatts at the wheels, and the officer was understanding being it was 10pm at night, food in the car on the way home with no one else at the lights at the time - he let me off with a warning), drifting and even revving is all considered "hooning". I'm sure the individual who pulls you over can come up with some more if they're having a bad day... hmm..

Edited 23/01/11 05:11 AM by Arkayne