Tasmania Police has seized 267 vehicles in the last six months as part of a crackdown on hooning, with over 180 currently sitting in police compounds awaiting collection or crushing.
Inspector Cathy Bennett said the number of confiscations has increased as offenders continue to push the boundaries and escalate their reckless behaviour on the road.
“People seem to think it’s alright to be out on the roads and show off and quite frankly brag about what they’re doing,” Bennett said.
“From the perspective of Road Policing Services, we’re just disgusted by the behaviour of people.”
She said the offenders “take it for granted” that they will be safe on the roads.
“We’re trying to make people safe on the roads [but] with people like that driving, it’s just not happening,” she said.
“There are a number of areas … where people will come [for the] express purposes of videoing their behaviour on the roads and then posting it online and quite frankly that’s just abhorrent behaviour.”
Police Minister Felix Ellis said the government is ‘fed-up’ by the behaviour of hoons and has begun drafting new legislation to get them off the road.
“These TikTok turkeys have absolutely no place on our roads,” he said.
“We want to put hoons vehicles on the fast track to the crusher and that’s going to be important in terms of sending a strong message to these people that what they are doing is putting lives at risk.”
The legislation will make it easier for authorities to clamp, confiscate and crush vehicles, with tougher penalties for dangerous driving, reckless driving and motor vehicle theft.
“We’re also introducing a new offence for road rage, because no one deserves that kind of behaviour on our road,” Ellis said.
“People need to treat each other with respect.”
