Celica Forums General Discussion General New hoon laws here in Australia

Over here in Western Australia there has been a lot of talk recently about getting hoons off the road. In case you guys don't know a hoon is someone who drives dangerously and usually owns a nice car. Anyway last night at 12pm a new law came into place that anyone caught street racing or doing dangerous acts on the road would get their car confiscated by police. Less than half an hour after the law came into play a 19 year old guy was caught doing 140 in a 70 zone driving a Nissan Silvia (SR20DET powered). Sure enough the car was taken off him and he is to face court on charges of reckless driving and could face up to 9 months jail. I do not agree with doing ridiculous things on the road but I do believe that police will abuse this new law as they have done with so many here in the past. I fear that cars will be confiscated just beacuse they are modifed and to me that is wrong. Who are these people to take away something you have spent a lot of money on. If you are being stupid though then you have to accept the concequences. Just curious if there are laws like these where you guys live and what you think of this law.

thats stupid, and i bet the people who passed the law were all elderly people who wanted the "street racers" to slow down, and stop driving under trucks... the movies dont depict life. The law should stay out of people business

and yet if it is the elderly some are just as bad as new drivers.. as most of their reaction time is slower and some are driving the "tank" cars of their hay day so imagine something like that headed towards you =P ..they need some new laws for the elderly like mandatory drivers test to see if they are still capable of driving

it sounds good to deter the bad drivers but there can be downside like you mentione of the cops abusing the power. No laws like that in Canada yet, thank goodness.

sorry to hear that my friend...and welcome to the site BTW ...we have something close to that here in the states (and most people are unaware)...if you get pulled over by a state trooper (rather than local county police) and he wants to search your car, he can take whatever he wants to search it or drugs (which is the real reason so many of us with flashy celicas get pulled over)

we have lots of hoons here in Cali. The police can take your car if you're ever caught street racing. no questions asked.

here is the rules for the new law that came in
this is from newsletter of the law
Police have been given wider powers to control misbehaving or ˜hooning by people in motor vehicles.
The Police Powers & Responsibilities Amendment Act has given police the power to allow them to confiscate vehicles or impose additional punishment for driving or noise offences.
Police powers have been widened to include:
- police can impound a vehicle if any of these offences are suspected: dangerous driving, careless driving, racing and speed trials on roads, unnecessary noise or smoke emitted in conjunction with a speed trial, race or ˜burn-out .
- for a first offence the vehicle can be impounded for 48 hours.
- for a first offence, the notice must cover: how the owner may recover the vehicle; that the vehicle will be impounded for 48 hours; if the driver is found guilty they are to pay impounding costs; the penalty for unlawfully removing a vehicle.
- for a second offence, committed within three years of the first, the vehicle can be impounded for 48 hours and the police officer must then apply to the court within those 48 hours for the vehicle to be impounded for no more than three months.
- for a third offence or more, again committed within three years, the vehicle will be impounded for 48 hours and the officer must apply to the court within that 48 hours for the vehicle to be confiscated; for that to occur, however, the court must postpone the confiscation until the charge for the offence against the driver is decided.
- the court must order that the vehicle be returned unless it is satisfied that impounding the vehicle will stop another offence of the same type being committed.
- the owner cannot sell the vehicle until the confiscation application is decided.
- an impounded vehicle cannot be kept for more than three months.
- if the vehicle was stolen or rented it must be returned to the owner and no claim made Police also now have powers for stopping excess noise stemming from a radio, CD player or similar equipment in a vehicle on a road or in a public place and police can act without a complaint if they are satisfied the noise is excessive.

and the p plate that was caught the other night also had a blood alchol reading of 0.02.
Im also a member of perth Performance club and everyones try to figure out a way to get it changed, cos we can see cops using this to there advantage if they want to pick on a car and also the amount of high speed chases will go up.

Ive got some video clips the news about hoons that where on alittle while ago ill try and put it up, but the funny thing is that the footage of the cars doing burnouts and stuff is like 3-4 years old and they keep reusing it.

^^ that is ripe for abuse...if the car's stereo is too "loud" or the exhaust is too "loud" it's an instant impounding...i hope you guys get that changed.

What BLARG is saying is exactly right. We have things called defect notices here in Australia and for years police have been abusing this. If you are pulled over and your car is deemed to be unsafe then police can issue these notices and you must get you car inspected by the proper authorites. This costs money to do and anything damaged on your car then needs to be fixed. The problem is that police tend to only give these notices to people with modified cars which are usually in great condition. I have a good friend who has a rare (in australia) muscle car in showroom condition and he was recently pulled over for a random check. When the police inspected his car they were so annoyed that there was nothing wrong with it they decided to give him a defect notice for an air freshener hanging from his rear view mirror and gave the excuse that it was affecting vision. When he told them he would simply take it off they said he couldn't. He got the notice and he had to pay $50 to get it off at the inspection center. This is the type of thing I am worried about as police will take your car from you just because it is modified and that is very very wrong.

Talk about living in a policed state.

yeah its crap one guy in the car club's got a civic typr r and he went through a rbt and they pulled him tho the side to check out his car and they went throught the whole car and since they could find anything wrong with the car they gave him a yellow for wait for it no positive rebound on his suspension, if it had no positive rebound, How bloody stupid can you get.

Lol thats a joke. Hey dude if you are in PPCC then you must know Peter. I used to work with him and he drives a blown VS Manta plates FIST. Hows his ride goin anyway?

FIST lol yeah everyone knows the big fist, ive been a member since oct and i havnt seen it yet, ill have to ask him about it at the day cruise next sunday.

hey CHARGD I was just looking over the forums last night and this is what i found
FIST wrote
was pressing out the shafts to replace the bearings and the shaft had "grown" on the pulley so much that the cast casing cracked before the shaft moved.
cracked again in another section when we pressed the crack back down.

not a very enjoyable weekend.

cars been reverted back to stock. undecided what to do now.
either way the f***ers being sold, spent way too much for no reward.

this is one "Bungle" from the hoon squad over in Brisbane.
this is taking from Performance forums.

A MAGISTRATE has thrown out a speeding charge against a man who panicked when chased by an unmarked Turbocharged vehicle driven by out-of-uniform police whom he feared might harm him.

At no time during what defence barrister Greg Lynham described as a "bizarre" episode did the police, wearing Hawaiian shirts, identify themselves with lights, siren or other signals.

Raymond Hessler, 24, now from Brisbane but who was living in Annandale when the incident occurred in January, had made the rare defence of "emergency" and "an offence of compulsion" when he pleaded not guilty to a charge of speeding.

The Townsville Magistrates Court heard that two officers from the Brisbane-based Traffic Response Group (also known as the hoon squad because of its role in policing souped-up cars), Senior Constables Paul Hocken and Domenic Savoia, were on undercover duty checking on hoon activity on The Strand on January 18.

They were driving an unmarked Turbo-charged Holden Astra.

In evidence from both the witness box and commentary on a police video in the Astra, the officers decided to follow Hessler in his imported Nissan Skyline Turbo coupe because Sen-Constable Hocken said "drivers of this type of vehicle tend to race each other and experience suggests that other offences may take place".

On that basis, the police followed the Skyline for 25 minutes, from The Strand out to Annandale, with the police video suggesting that in the main no laws were broken.

When Hessler became aware of the police car, when he was about three minutes from his home, the police car followed him with lights on high beam as he turned into Hazelwood Court, Annandale, the cul-de-sac where he lived.

The court heard video commentary from Sen-Constable Hocken telling the driver to block the Skyline and not to let him past as it turned at the bottom of the street.

Hessler said that when the Astra swerved towards the Skyline, "I panicked, I was just scared, I wanted to get out of there.

"How was I to know they were police?"

He said he thought it could have been a stolen car and the occupants would not care if they crashed into him.

He said his car was often the target for thieves and he did not stop at his house because he did not want the men in the car to know where he lived.

The court heard this fact was borne out three months later when the Skyline was stolen.

Mr Hessler gunned the car up on the footpath and took off at speeds up to 125km/h, with the Astra chasing it through the Annandale streets, still without police lights or siren.

When Hessler eventually pulled over to the side of Oonoonba Road, Idalia, thinking he had lost his pursuer, the Astra suddenly appeared, pulling in front of him.

He said that even then, identification was not immediately offered.

Sen-Constable Hocken said the lights and siren had not been used because he did not want to spark a dangerous police pursuit.

After an examination of the car, the shaken driver was issued with notices that his car was too low and his exhaust too loud. It was the subsequent speeding charge that was opposed in court.

Magistrate Stephanie Tonkin agreed that Hessler's actions had been reasonable under the circumstances and found him not guilty.

A statement issued to the Townsville Bulletin yesterday by the Queensland Police media unit in Brisbane said the judgment would be looked at closely before any comment was made.

and aparently in wa there's been afew sightings of a red commodore pulling up to people at lights and reving their engine trying to get people to race them, only one of them in uniform (the driver). aparently people have tried taking it to court saying it's entrapment but aparently it dosnt apply.