Hooning increases dangers for all road users

ROAD policing in the Greater Dandenong Local Government Area presents police with a number of challenges.
The primary focus of road policing is to reduce fatal collisions and trauma.
The cost of road trauma to the community is enormous in economic, social and environmental terms.
Greater Dandenong Highway Patrol has primary responsibility to the public within the City of Greater Dandenong for road safety.
The activities of the Highway Patrol aim to reduce trauma through certain functions. These include enforcement, safety camera placement, booze bus operations and support and highly visible patrols, to name a few.
A great deal of time is spent on identifying times and places where policing resources need to be allocated.
This is to provide the public with policing service at times of highest road trauma.
Recently, individuals and groups have been engaged in intentional high risk driving throughout the south-eastern suburbs.
By allocating resources to address this intentional behaviour, our ability to provide service to the public at times of greatest need is reduced.
Hoon driving is high-risk and deliberate. The risks are death or serious injury. The sanctions for those caught participating include jail.
These activities involve the deliberate loss of traction on roads, dragging, unlawful gatherings and public disorder.
Because more police are rostered on duty when most traffic crashes are expected to occur there are fewer officers available to police late night hoon activity.
The Greater Dandenong Highway Patrol, with assistance from other policing areas and partner agencies, will be focusing more heavily on those involved in intentional high risk driving through various means.
These will include CCTV surveillance in risk areas, greater enforcement of state laws and enforcement of bylaws which are designed to reduce the incidence of unlawful gatherings.
Hoon activities are inherently dangerous, particularly where spectators and bystanders are close to vehicles engaged in intentional high-risk driving.
Aside from the obvious dangers posed by these activities, the disorder and accompanying street crime exposes the general public to danger.
Local business is affected when the amenity of their environment is destroyed and infrastructure damage directly affects income.
While road safety is a key focus of Victoria Police, it requires an all of community approach to eradicate trauma and the risks to road users.
I encourage everyone to report instances of hoon behaviour through triple zero or Crime Stoppers and understand that intentional high risk driving is extremely dangerous to all road users.
It diverts finite resources away from high trauma times.
To those who continue to engage in this behaviour, your risk of death or serious injury is significantly increased, the sanctions are severe and you expose innocent people to unacceptable levels of risk.