By ANEEKA SIMONIS
A BEACONSFIELD mum, whose husband was almost cleaned-up by senseless hoons who frequent her neighbourhood, is pleading with council to rethink a decision that puts her family in danger.
Michelle, who lives on Payne Road in Beaconsfield, said she and her family, including two children under two years of age, are constantly taunted by reckless young drivers who use the neighbourhood as a drag track – leaving rubber and burn-out marks all over the roads.
“It’s a constant occurrence. They speed and use these roads as a way of racing other cars even if it means they drive on the wrong side of the road,” Michelle wrote in a plea to Cardinia Shire Council to install speed bumps along the roads.
But she was told her concerns would be better dealt with by police.
“Traffic management devices are not an appropriate solution to the issues described in your letter. Please note that the issues described in your letter relate primarily to anti-social behaviour and enforcement,” Council’s Senior Traffic Engineer Nicholas Charrett said.
Michelle said she constantly reported hoons’ registration plates to the police, who have charged some offenders, but believed a structural inhibitor such as a speed hump was the only way of deterring the hoons for good.
“I’m not confident the police have the resources to do what’s necessary to stop this,” she wrote.
Michelle said her husband Shane was almost in a serious road accident with a driver who wasn’t stopping his vehicle for anybody.
“They smoked their wheels up and then we heard a heap of screaming so my husband drove down and the culprit was on the wrong side of the road.
“He nearly cleaned my husband up (as he was trying to get away),” she said of the incident during the total fire ban period in January which drew two fire engines to the scene.
Michelle, who moved to her Beaconsfield acreage 12 months ago to give her children a better lifestyle, said incidents like these made her regret the decision.
“I am very concerned for their safety, not only when they are in the car with myself but when they want to play outside,” she said.
Senior Sergeant Nathan Prowd said hoon behaviour was rife in Cardinia Shire.
“It’s a big issue for our area.
“We encourage everyone to make reports about hoon drivers to the police.
“We will target road policing in areas known to us to reduce trauma,” he said.
A male passenger died in a fatal collision along O’Neil Road in October last year.
