Ballarat residents are harboring genuine fears over their safety after yet another incident of dangerous hooning.
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In the early hours of Thursday morning a reckless driver smashed into the car of 19-year-old university student Natasha Thomas while doing burnouts on the Magpie Street and Bradshaw Street intersection in Golden Point.
The incident has left Ms Thomas with no choice but to buy a new vehicle, despite recently spending thousands of dollars on car registration and maintenance.
While furious with the outcome, the family holds even bigger concerns for the safety of others living in the street, with Ms Thomas saying the consequences could have been far worse.
“Our bedrooms are just at the front (of the house). If my car hadn’t been there, if my brother’s car hadn’t been there, they could have gone straight into the front yard and through our windows,” she said.
“I can’t drive it (the car) anymore, so I have to pay for a new one and it makes you pretty angry. I’m only a uni student, so I can’t afford a lot.
“We’ve got elderly people in the street and families – how long is this going to take before they kill someone?”
Thursday’s incident is not the first time Magpie Street residents have been exposed to hoon behavior, with multiple instances of reckless driving in the area recently recorded.
WE’VE PLOTTED WHERE YOU SAY THE HOON HOTSPOTS ARE. FILL OUT THE FORM AT THE BOTTOM OF THE STORY TO ADD YOUR VOICE.
Ms Thomas said the implementation of speed humps and roundabouts would help curb instances of reckless driving, which she says happens several times a week.
Experts are less convinced of the legitimacy of such measures, believing they tend to shift the problem elsewhere.
Crime Stoppers Victoria chief executive Sam Hunter said continued education is required.
“Education is vitally important to young people for knowing the risks and the consequences,” she said.
“We often talk about the consequences in fines, but there’s also that emotional impact.
“There’s a human cost to it as well.”
Ballarat City Council mayor and head of the road safety committee Des Hudson acknowledged that it’s “difficult” to prevent instances of late-night hooning.
Cr Hudson said it is often difficult to implement CCTV cameras outside of central business district areas.
“The provision of CCTV in some of those remote locations is problematic. It requires significant infrastructure and the practical application of that is quite limited,” he said.
“Where the local community can identify a pattern of behavior, chances are it’s the same people doing it.”
Cr Hudson said council has a list of roads that have been listed as in need of a change in design to improve safety.
“They are a little bit longer (as far as solutions go), but we have a long list of roads that are earmarked for improvement.”
Report hoon driving to 1800 333 000.
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