Mayor Michelle Dracoulis suggests crushing cars of hooning drivers putting people at risk
Hooning has been around for years, but a Tassie mayor says it’s time to consider crushing cars of offenders and the Police Minister agrees.
The State Government will again look at powers to crush the cars of hooning drivers after a local mayor raised fears someone could die due to a “d…head having their fun”.
Derwent Valley mayor Michelle Dracoulis told the Sunday Tasmanian that young drivers were so “bold now” that they were doing donuts in New Norfolk’s main streets during busy day time trading.
She said “black smoke” came into her nearby house from the burnouts.
Ms Dracoulis advocated crushing cars to deter offenders – a move strongly backed by Police Minister Felix Ellis who said “there is no excuse for this sort of reckless behaviour”.
“We remain committed to throwing the book at those who selfishly put other road users and themselves in danger,” he said.
“As part of our 100-day plan, we will be reintroducing the Police Offences Amendment Bill 2025 to target unsafe driving behaviour, which includes more powers to crush and confiscate.
“This will ensure that there are significant consequences for those who put people and property in danger.”
Ms Dracoulis said hooning had been a problem for a long time.
“I’m worried someone’s going to get hurt. Either a person who’s walking on the road, someone in one of the houses, or businesses where they’re doing this out the front, or the person in the car,” she said. “I don’t want to see them hurt either.
“They do donuts on our corner because it’s the broadest corner in the High Street, but that being said, they zoom up and down Burnett Street and any of the straight roads in the area.
“They’re that bold now that you will see doughnuts done in the middle of the day on that intersection during trading hours, when there’s people everywhere.
“Our house actually is situated very close to that and there’s times you get the black smoke come in the house from where they’re doing the spins on the corner.”
Ms Dracoulis suggested crushing cars was an option to deter offenders.
“I’ll be speaking to police about this and the reason I’ve mentioned the crushing of cars is because I followed what they did in Bankstown (NSW) and they only ended up crushing a couple and then everyone stopped.
“I don’t actually want to see everyone’s cars crushed, it’s just when they realise there’s actually an outcome to doing that, they tend to stop.”
In a Facebook post Ms Dracoulis referred to a hooning incident on Thursday night which she said was “scary for those indoors, and even scarier for those using the road properly”.
“Nobody deserves to die due to a d…head having their fun - not even the d…head who’s driving.
“Reign it in guys - there are safe places to chuck a doughy that aren’t in the guts of town in the middle of a public road.”
Ms Dracoulis said she had looked at having a special place for people to do donuts but they were “generally underutilized, people don’t want to pay the fees”.
Police Assistant Commissioner Adrian Bodnar said hooning was “a serious concern”.
“Hooning is not only illegal, but also dangerous, and puts people’s lives at risk,” he said.
“Offenders can expect to be arrested and have their vehicle clamped or confiscated.”
Police recently launched Operation Full Stop at Risdon Vale and Clarendon Vale to detect offenders and “prevent harm before it occurs”.
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