By VANESSA CHIRCOP
MORE than 80 hoons had their cars impounded in Wyndham in the first half of the year.
The City of Wyndham had 83 vehicles impounded from January to June 30, easily outdoing neighbouring municipalities Hobsons Bay, Melton and Maribyrnong.
The City of Wyndham had 83 vehicles impounded in the first six months of the year, Melton had 66, Hobsons Bayhad 32 and Maribyrnong had 26.
Former Highway Patrol Unit Sergeant Jason Van Doren said 43 per cent of vehicles in the Hobsons Bay municipality were impounded for excessive speeds of more than 45 kilometres over the speed limit but was shocked by one particular case.
“The shocking thing is we’ve caught at least one person driving at an excessive speed of more than 70 kilometres over the speed limit,” he said.
Nine out of the 32 drivers had their vehicles impounded for driving while disqualified and five drivers were nabbed for careless and improper driving.
“Out of the 32, low and behold, 30 are male drivers,” Sgt Van Doren said.
“Out of the 32, 12 were probationary drivers.”
Sgt Van Doren said the perception that all hoons are P-platers was not always the case, with more and more older drivers being busted for poor driving behaviour.
“We have a situation where P-plate drivers are restricted in the types of vehicles they can drive, they can’t drive V8s and turbos – perhaps when they are on their full licence and they are in a position where they can purchase one of those vehicles, that’s when we’re catching them,” he said.
Sgt Van Doren said there is no excuse for hooning – and he’s heard them all from drivers claiming to be busting to go the toilet to rushing because they’re running out of petrol.
“They’re looking for the excuse that’s going to work and guess what? There isn’t one,” he said.
“I don’t give warnings – you had a chance to not get a ticket and that was lifting your foot off the pedal.”
