In a press conference today (May 26) Police Minister Judith Collins along with Transport Minister Steven Joyce announced that much tougher anti-boy racer laws would be introduced in New Zealand – including the crushing of repeat offender’s cars involved in street racing.
New penalties also included the confiscation and sale of cars from owners with overdue fines to pay those debts.
It’s no secret that boy-racers are often a problem on NZ roads. There have been a number of high-profile cases in which people have been hurt or killed due to stupid behaviour. But what I’m wondering is, will these sorts of changes actually work, or are they a futile measure, enacted due to public discourse?
If a young person is stupid enough to get behind the wheel of a high performance car and accelerate at excessive speeds on often crowded urban streets, often with drugs or alcohol in their system, how likely is it that they will take into account these new penalties before making the decision to go cruising?
On the topic of ’cruising’, local authorities will gain new powers to create bylaws specifically targeting vehicles who are thought to be ‘cruising’. So what defines this? Cruising seems a very broad term. Is there such a thing as ‘cruising’ responsibly? I would think that if you were driving at normal, legal speeds, cruising around on a Friday or Saturday would be a legitimate form of entertainment, right?
And as for the crushing of cars – I personally think thats a complete waste of money and property and is more a symbolic punishment to satisfy to public angst toward boy-racers.
For the cost of having a car crushed into a shiny, turbo-charged cube police could take said car to a muffler shop and have a quiet exhaust fitted before re-selling the car for tens of thousands of dollars to a more responsible owner.
OK, so lets look at the problems here. Boy-racers (read: not car enthusiasts, completely different group) cause the following problems in society:
Excessive noise from mufflers: Why are muffler shops not being targeted for continuing to sell these blaring mufflers, and installing them on obvious boy-racer cars? If all boy-racers had normal, quiet exhausts, would this be far less of a problem? I believe the current noise decibel limit in NZ is 90dB to get a WOF. Is that number too high? Perhaps we are targeting the symptoms instead of the cause here.
Anti-social or aggressive behaviour: This is not a problem which is caused by ALL boy-racers. It is a huge generalisation to say that all boy-racers are anti-social, aggressive or intimidating, although I’m sure there are some. Young people in groups can be intimidating to some people, yes, but not all young people out for a drive on Friday or Saturday are out to scare old ladies.
Accidents through illegal street racing: First up, is there such a thing as legal street racing? Lets just refer to it as street-racing. Yes, street-racing is a problem, as it has caused accidents many times in the past. This does stem for irresponsible behaviour on the vehicle-owner’s part and I support the impounding of vehicles caught doing this. There are (limited) facilities scattered around New Zealand where people wanting to compete with other vehicle-owners can go to do so safely.
I think these new laws are intended to act as a deterrent. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see who is actually deterred by them, or if this will be an empty threat.
One comment on Stuff ’s article on the subject reads: “Last resort, now catch me if you can. If this is what you are doing for us that have our cars as a hobbie (not christchurch boyracers)I speak on behalf of most car admirers of Wellington when I say, next time I see your red and blues, be prepared for 350kw of 4wd power, also keep in mind you have to pull off at 160km/h, i dont, i wont.”
2 Comments
November 7, 2009 at 11:57 am
Hi There
email me back when you have the answers to my questions!
If people didn’t wont boy racers why did they make fast cars that go over 100 and can go up to 230 or higher???
have you got a dream car that you have always wanted??
a boy racers dream car is to get it fast and up to show spec but because there young people and have cars they are done up police are targating them.
Just imagen if you just got your dream car and you were doing it up the way you wantd it and the way you liked it then all of a suden all your had work just goes down the drain because it gets impounded or crushed hows that going to make you feel?? ud feel aggressave angry and really annoyed i would.
ok if you wont boy racers off the roads all people have to do is build a place were thy can go if that is peoples problem with boy racers why dont you talk to them insteed of the way police and everyone is handling it, it is just makeing them angryer how police impound there cars and all that silly law that they have now all they had to do is build a race track for them to go on and people wouldnt have the fuss they have now…!
thanx
Baylee
November 7, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Hi Baylee,
Some cars are manufactured for different conditions than those which exist in New Zealand. In certain parts of Europe and even Australia there are no speed limits, so having cars which can travel above 100 km/h can be useful in some areas. Even in NZ, cars need to be able to go above 100 to overtake.
Just because a car is capable of traveling at 230 km/h, it doesn’t mean that it should. I don’t think the companies which design the cars intend for them to be used in an irresponsible manner. Also, with the advancement of modern technology and also the influence of commercial marketing, the top speed of a car has become a selling point for performance cars, even though most owners will rarely achieve those speeds (legally). So the higher it goes, the more attractive to a buyer it is, and the more sales for the company.
I understand that boy racers are essentially performance car hobbyists, but unfortunately, some are endangering their own and the lives of others by racing these powerful cars on public streets. You must agree that there are a lot of speed-related crashes in NZ. I’m not against performance cars, far from it, I love nice cars, but I hate the way some people use them.
As for impounding, you would have to be doing something illegal to get it impounded, right? Police can’t charge you for speeding if you are doing 50km/h. If you have a proper licence and obey the road rules and laws they can’t touch you. If you don’t, you deserve to lose your car. It’s that simple. I would say take licences away, but that would deter very few boy racers from driving, as the car is their life.
I agree that more places should exist where boy racers are able to burn off a bit of petrol in a controlled environment and enjoy the power that these machines generate.
Oh, and as for a dream car, there are dozens that I would love to have, I’m a bit of a fan of VTECs, but also a few euros, BMWs, Mercs, none of that flashy Lambo or Porsche stuff. Probably just a nice 7 series BMW would be good.
Thanks for the comment,
LA