Crush the hoon's cars!
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Is this the solution to the car hoon problem in Bayside?
This was one of many suggestions put forward at a community meeting attended by more than 250 residents from Sans Souci and surrounding areas on Monday, November 27 at the St George Motorboat Club.
The meeting was called by the Bayside Ward 5 Residents' Group to discuss speeding and hoon behaviour, break and enters and safety concerns in their suburb.
Many suggestions were put forward from the residents in regards to improved lighting, enhanced traffic calming devices and ways to deal with hoons that continually offend.
There was great support from a suggestion by a resident to "crush the cars" similar to the system used in South Australia to deal with habitual offenders.
Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sedrak, who was the convener for the meeting, stated afterwards that he would progress this approach through council if there was enough public support.
Representatives from the NSW Government, Police and Bayside Council also attended.
Superintendent Rohan Cramsie, Councillor Ed McDougall, Bayside Mayor Bill Saravinovski and Council representative Eric Connerton were part of the guest speaker panel.
They provided an update on the installation of three new fixed cameras at Brighton-Le-Sands near Gordon Street and a third camera at Sans Souci near Alice Street.
The new camera on Alice Street will be bi-directional to monitor traffic both ways. The cameras are expected to be fully operational by early 2024.
Transport for NSW will also install speed camera advance warning signs along sections of The Grand Parade. The signs are a commitment by the NSW Government to increase community awareness, and to slow motorists down.
NSW Police told the meeting they have had 29 specific operations in the Sans Souci area.
On July 7 and 8, a total of 40 police specifically targeted hoons and speeding. There are ongoing operations such as Operation Katana to target dangerous driving behaviours.
Bayside Mayor Bill Saravinovski spoke about the further expansion of the Licence Plate Recognition (LPR) smart technology cameras throughout Bayside.
He announced that Bayside Council was in the process of ordering 19 new LPR cameras that are scheduled to be installed along Riverside Drive by the end of this financial year.
This is the same location as an incident on Saturday, November 11 when St George Police were called following reports of about seven cars speeding along Riverside Drive with approximately 12 people egging them on.
Eight police cars attended with Highway Patrol and General Duties Officers. Five vehicles were found to be defective, four traffic infringements were issued and two males were arrested and charged with failing to comply with a move on direction and resisting arrest.
This same group of vehicles had been earlier captured on LPR cameras in Vanston Parade, Sandringham at 9.39pm illegally parked while a black sedan did a burnout. Council had issued fines for the illegal parking and Police, who have access to Council LPR footage, are following up on the vehicle that did the burnout.
Mayor Saravinovski also spoke about additional traffic calming devices that are shortly to be installed following the results of community consultation throughout the area.
The council has also allowed complete access of the Council LPR smart camera system footage to police so that crimes that council cannot action such as burnouts can be handled by the police.
Bayside Ward 5 Residents Group will be updating action being taken on suggestions raised at the meeting including "crush the cars" via their Facebook page: