John MacDonald: There is no finish line for boy and girl racers

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

When I heard on Friday morning that the cops had been out in force the night before cracking down on boy racers, I thought two things.

My first thought was ‘that’s great, I hope they do it again right through the weekend’. And the reason I thought that - and it was purely selfish - was because, with the kids home from uni, I knew a couple of them were planning to drive out to a party with mates on Saturday night.

At that point, I had it in my head that the party was up Kaiapoi-way, so I had visions of them shooting up the motorway on Saturday night.

Turns out I didn’t quite have my finger on the pulse and the party was in town. Either way, that was one of the things that went through my head when I heard the police had interrupted eight “skid Meets” - as they’re known - on Thursday night, involving more than 100 cars. Six in Christchurch. Two in Rolleston.

Three cars were impounded on Thursday night for sustained loss of traction. I think we can assume that’s official ‘police-speak’ for burn-outs.

Eighteen infringement notices were issued to drivers; two cars had green stickers stuck on them, which means there are compliance issues; and another car got a pink sticker - which meant it just shouldn't have been on the road, full stop. You get a pink sticker and your car’s going nowhere.

And it was all part of a nationwide blitz on the boy racers.

So, like I say, when I first heard about two things went through my head. I hope they keep doing it right through the long weekend. Which, it turns out, they did.

And the other thought I had, was that they - as in the Police - and “we”, are dreaming if we think a one-off sting on a long weekend is going to make any long-term difference. Because it’s not.

That didn’t stop acting Canterbury district commander police superintendent Lane Todd from doing a bit of the old chest thumping on the TV news last night.

In another report I’ve seen, the superintendent says: “Our staff did an excellent job identifying potential hotspots and consistently targeting participants in unsafe vehicles.”

No argument from me there. They didn't just do an excellent job - they did a brilliant job. And I reckon, because of it, the roads in Canterbury were much safer than usual over the weekend.

But, whether we like it or not, boy racers are here to stay. And, unless the police are going to do what they did at the weekend every weekend, or maybe even every night - then the success thry had at the weekend will just be a one-off.

I’ve had a gutsful of boy racers. We had that tragedy last September when an 18-year-old woman died after the car she was in crashed into the side of a house in Rangiora.

They’d been at an illegal street racing event and, when the police turned-up just before 5:45am, the driver took off and ended-up crashing.

The cops started following but gave up after a while because of the way the car was being driven and because they got into a built-up area. Not long after that, the driver lost control and crashed.

And, just weeks before that happened, there was all the fuss about boy racers causing mayhem for some of the animals at Orana Park. Because that stretch of road at McLeans Island is your boy racer’s idea of heaven.

And all the revving and screeching of tyres had some of the animals so freaked-out that they panicked and they ran around their enclosures and got injured.

But just because we’ve had a gutsful of boy racers. And just because the cops decide to do a surprise crackdown over one long weekend. It’s not going to make any long-term difference.

The only way the police could make any real difference, would be to do what they did at the weekend 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week. But that is never going to happen.

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