Sunday Mail Article - Hoon Driving - 10 May 2009

It was a dark and stormy night.

I was driving up Greenhill Road heading home after attending a community function and passed a car with a smashed bonnet on the side of the road with the headlights blazing, alarm blaring.

The street was completely dead, it was quite late on a weeknight and imagining the worst - a fatality or an injured person slumped over the wheel - I stopped, got out of the car and went to investigate.

Much to my relief the car was empty; it appeared to be abandoned.

I drove on, but with vivid stories of disappearing hitchhikers and axe wielding maniacs hidden in backseats floating through my mind.

Suddenly from behind me four car headlights tore up the darkness, two cars, one in each lane, which appeared to be fighting it out in some road race.

Thankfully passing a side street, I was able to pull in and let them by without incident.

What an anti-climax!

That is my 'hoon driving' story. Sure - it is no Stephen King thriller, but I imagine what would have happened if one of those cars had lost control or if my wife or children had been in the car when it occurred. And every week I hear concerned constituents tell me their stories - some much more serious than mine, but with the same fear, anger and frustration.

We need action on this issue, not more big talk. And we need solutions that will actually work.

Young people are assaulted with images of speeding cars and car racing. Through movies, television: there is no escaping it. Right here in Adelaide every year we have an annual celebration of speed, the Clipsal 500. And the Clipsal 500 brings people together, stimulates economic activity, and is an excellent event for South Australia.

It is hardly surprising that some young men will want to feel that thrill themselves, and it would be hypocritical to say that was evil or wrong in and of itself when we welcome car race events to our streets. The problem with hoon driving is the reckless disregard for the road rules, public safety, and human life.

One proposal that would provide an outlet for some young people's need for speed, while maintaining public safety, is to allow off-street drag racing meetings.

Interstate, police use off-street drag racing meetings to engage with young ""rev-heads"", promoting better relationships for them with authority figures.

The most remarkable thing about this proposal is that it need not cost the taxpayer once cent. The State Opposition, through Shadow Road Safety Minister Stephen Wade, announced in March that an Adelaide consortium had been working for over a year and a half to develop a new $25 million motorsport complex, but had been frustrated by the State Government's reluctance to approve the project.

South Australia and Victoria are the only states without off street drag racing circuits. This is entirely the Rann Government's fault.

Instead, the short lived Minister for Road Safety Tom Koutsantonis announced that the Government's policy solution will be to crush hoon drivers' cars.

Unfortunately that only works on those people who are caught, who own the car they are driving irresponsibly, and who are successfully prosecuted through the courts - makes snappy headlines but will actually have minimal effect on the road. Of course it doesn't bring back a young life lost because of a hoon driving accident.

The State Opposition has also called for police to start targeting speed cameras towards known street-racing hot spots across Adelaide, rather than targeting high volume roads where the camera might bring in more revenue. It wouldn't fix the problem in itself, but it would help, and it would send a clear message - that we will direct the necessary resources at catching hoons and it will cost them big.

This week I sent out a survey to people in my electorate who are living around some of our more notorious hoon driving hotspots. As a local MP in Adelaide's North Eastern and Eastern suburbs, I am keen to work with the State Government, with police, and with the local community in my electorate, to tackle the problem where it exists.

Every step that can possibly be taken to avert tragedies caused by hoon driving should be taken as a matter of course. The fact that the State Government prefers rhetorical flourish and headline-catching statements, such as ""crushing cars"", to practical solutions that will save lives - like the two I have outlined - is nothing short of a disgrace. The Premier should hang his head in shame.