Holdens dominate in hoon impoundments

Andrew Mathieson
Holden drivers are the biggest hoons in the region, according to police statistics.
Holdens account for almost half the cars seized in the city since the introduction of Victorian impoundment laws.
Geelong Police service area figures show 82 Holdens impounded since July, 2006 – almost all Commodores – compared to 11 Fords.
Police have seized a total 182 cars in the region with Holdens accounting for 45 per cent and Ford six per cent.
Hoons have had cars impounded under the new laws for activities including burnouts, fish-ailing, doughnuts and excessive speed.
The police figures showed that Corio hoons lost nearly three times more cars than anywhere else in the region. Twenty-five Corio hoons lost their cars to impoundment, with Norlane and Whittington/St Albans Park equal second worst with nine offenders each.
Police took eight cars from hoons in the city’s other suburbs, including Geelong West and South Geelong.
Geelong’s Police Station officers have confiscated 127 cars, while their Corio colleagues have locked up 31 in a beat covering Bell Park, Bell Post Hill, Corio, Norlane, North Geelong and North Shore.
Bellarine and Torquay police stations impounded 10 cars.
Lara Police locked up three cars and Queenscliff impounded one.
Geelong Traffic Unit leading Senior Constable Darren Mighall said hoon drivers had slowly moved away from their traditional haunt, Eastern Beach’s Ritchie Boulevard.
“They’re pretty much everywhere on the roads now,” he said.
“I wouldn’t say there’s a specific hotspot.”
Corio police told the Independent the most common hoon hangouts were North Shore’s Corio Quay Road and Madden Avenue and Norlane’s Thompson Road.
Snr Const Mighell said the police impoundments showed hoons were also playing up at any time day or night and during weekdays.
He believed the two-year-old laws were slowly reducing hoons on the region’s roads.
“I think it seems to be working,” Snr Const Mighell said.
“I don’t think we’ve had one repeat offender as yet.”
Drivers caught hooning have their cars impounded for at least 48 hours.
Snr Const Mighell believed impounding cars on Thursday and not returning them until the following Monday was acting as a strong deterrent.
Magistrates also had the power to impose three-month bans for drivers with prior convictions for hooning, he said.
Geelong was the second-worst hoon offender in regional Victoria behind Bendigo, which had nearly doubled the rate of impoundment.
“I don’t think we’ve got a hoon culture,” Snr Const Mighall said of Geelong.
“I think the biggest hoon city has to be Bendigo. They’ve got 40 more than what we’ve had and they are like half the size.”