67 Boy Racers Taken Off the Streets of Christchurch

Following a weekend blitz on boy racers (hoons) in the City 67 vehicles were impounded for unpaid fines or being illegally modified, 17 people were arrested for minor offences and more than 300 infringement notices were issued.

Christchurch city has long been plagued by hoons and this latest round of arrests in just the latest of many attempts to curb the problem

Earlier this month a 17 year old youth was arrested for being the person responsible in a group of boy racers for assaulting a lone police officer with a bottle.

In March of last year one motel owner Radio New Zealand that the preceding weekend had been the worst for boy racers in the five years he had been operating in the city. Some of his guests left vowing never to return to either Christchurch or New Zealand, and that he himself was thinking of doing the same:

"The sooner we can get out of Christchurch the better. We've had enough and we're not the only ones. It's affecting our bottom line, it's affecting our health and it's just so unpleasant."

In Sept 2007 Police prosecuted 500 people following a sting targeting boy racers in the the city.

'Boy Racer' Death and Injury Statistics
It's difficult to put a number these but Land Transport NZ issues annual figures for deaths and for injuries in a range of age groups. The overwhelmingly largest statistics are assigned to the 15-24 year group, which is where I guess the majority of 'boy racers' are going to sit.

In the 12 months up to to January 2009 there were 96 deaths (51 drivers, 45 passengers) in this group and an astounding 4290 injuries (2814 drivers, 1476 passengers)