http://www.standard.net.au/news/local/n ... 64954.aspx
SMOKE THEM OUT: Steel-wheel hoons face new crackdown
BY ALEX JOHNSON
11/07/2009 4:00:00
HOONS who put steel rims with cheap tyres on their cars to do burn-outs can expect to see blue flashing lights in their rear visions mirrors from today.
Police are fed up with south-west drivers swapping rear alloy rims for "stockies" or "interceptors" and putting cheap, burn-out-ready tyres on them.
Acting Sergeant Greg Cressall, of the Warrnambool Traffic Management Unit, said any cars with the wheels were unroadworthy and drivers caught with them would face $193 fines.
"It's getting to the stage where I see them putting burn-out tyres on the back for the purpose of doing burn-outs," Acting Sergeant Cressall said.
All four rims on a vehicle were required by law to be the same diameter and have tyres of similar tread patterns, he said.
Acting Sergeant Cressall said the tyres on some cars he had pulled over with stock rims were so worn after burn-outs they had wire protruding from them and were nothing more than "death traps".
Most of the drivers were on P-plates, he said.
Some drivers had roadworthy tyres on steel rear rims purely as a "fashion statement" to show other drivers their cars were capable of doing burn-outs, Acting Sergeant Cressell said.
Warrnambool Auto Recyclers owner Peter Undy said many young drivers came in looking for 15-inch steel rims with tyres.
Mr Undy said he regularly saw the results outside his Cooper Street business, where hoons did burn-outs around the industrial estate.
The police crackdown won the support of Steve Griffin, vice-president of the Warrnambool and District Drag Racing Club.
Mr Griffin said it was obvious drivers with stock rims had them on their cars to do illegal burn-outs. Such hoon behaviour gave legal drag racing a bad name, he said.
The club held three supervised drag racing events at the Warrnambool Airport earlier this year.
It had submitted a proposal to Warrnambool City Council to establish a dedicated drag racing facility, featuring a burn-out pad in the hope young drivers would "get it out of their system".
If the facility was approved the club would like to hold between six and 12 drag racing events each year.
Acting Sergeant Cressall said the police blitz would also target drivers illegally using fog lights.
"You see every now and then cars going up and down Liebig Street cutting laps, they don't have any lights on, they've just got (foglights) on," he said.
The lights were particularly dazzling, he said.
Many drivers were unaware their foglights were on when they used their normal headlights, he said, but from today they could face $123 fines.
"Out on the highway, it's like a wall of light heading towards you," he said.
Police would also look for P-plate drivers illegally behind the wheel of high-powered V8 or turbo-charged vehicles, who risked a $234 fine and accrued three demerit points.
) most of the time i change my wheels before they were un-roadworthy and rarely had a problem, of coarse the copper would always check my rear tires but unless they were below the ware indicators there was nothing they could do.
