Victoria Police ‘hoon’ blitz starts tonight
August 20, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Victoria Police will tonight launch the second stage of Operation Ardent, a major road blitz aimed at dangerous driving across the state.
The operation, which will continue through until Sunday, will see police target specific trouble spots focusing on so-called ‘hoon’ driving as well as speeding, dangerous driving, drug and drink driving offences.
Regions identified as the state’s worst for serious road offences, and those to be specifically targeted as part of the operation, include Brimbank, Melbourne, Boroondara, Casey (the setting for Operation Ardent I), Yarra Ranges, Kingston, Mornington Peninsula, Dandenong, Frankston and Geelong.
Blitz resources include four Booze Buses, 30 police cars, several highway patrol cars and (marked and unmarked) police motorcycles though police did not say which areas would be singled out this time round.
Deputy Commissioner (Traffic) Ken Lay will keep the public informed of the results via the police Twitter feed.
“If just one person logs on, reads the Twitter posts and decides against drinking and driving, it will be worth doing,” said Mr Lay. “During (Operation) Ardent II, we’ll be increasing the police presence, upping our numbers and throwing everything we have at dangerous drivers.”
Operation Ardent II kicks off from these evening at 4pm.
Print it: 
If it gets IDIOTS and drunks off the roads am ALL for it.
Also need to come down hard on non-RWC vehicles.
This should be done EVERY single week with no mercy.
Thats what i want my tax-police-dollars spent on!
Bring it on!
Kipland
Agreed!
What is even better is they aren’t trying to hide it.
People have been warned and it will be the LCD that pays!
Other states should follow.
I just hope they pull over everyone who’s on their mobile while driving – it get up my nose how people can be so stupid when they’re controlling 1+tonnes of speeding metal…
Fishman, you know what I find most amusing is that most motorists I see driving while talking on their mobiles tend to be in expensive brand/model cars. You would assume they could easily afford a hands free device, but apparently they spent all their money on the car itself!
VR/S driver in the background is currently s***ing his pants! they dont look like stock clubsport wheels.. :p
Actually Simon, it’s nice to see Vics catching up to the rest of the country that’s allready been doing this.
So, What are our police doing when they are not on a blitz?
Good luck Police. I hope you hit your $$ budget! :|
Probably happening around the country, not just in Vic.
Last friday night in the space of about 10 mins on the M1 I saw a bike, unmarked BA 2 FPV GT and a VE omega ute pull people over for speeding.
haha i did a skid in the parkig lot and someone was like where’s the fire? idk? ya hoon! my ego was like hell yes!!!
can you lose points for wreckless driving? someone told me you can’t
Very good point Salesman! what they should be doing is having a bashing blitz…the bashings and muggings in Melbourne right now would be worse than a 3rd world city for sure…:-(
Yanzo, you can lose points for reckless driving, though it depends on what you have done.
Yanzo, a lot of the time now Reckless driving has fallen under the new hoon laws and they will impound your car for 48hrs then you get the fine and fees on getting it out.
To the clueless dorks in the Victorian government – THIS is what you should be doing all the time, not reying on speed cameras. Sure, it costs more and won’t bring in the same revenue, but blitzes of this kind do more for road safety than any number of cash cameras.
ok but what if it’s not my car? it’s the business car. and i just don’t stay in my lane, that’s about it. i don’t speed, i don’t drink drive or drug drive.
The Salesman Says:
August 20th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
“So, What are our police doing when they are not on a blitz?”
Catching up on all of the paperwork (probably from last blitz)
That Corolla next to the cop is probably the most likely candidate for reckless driving, not that cool-headed Commodore SS driver.
The policing of Victorian roads is a joke. I drive 40,000 kms pa & its an unusual week when I see one cop car. You can drive like a suicidal idiot, weaving in out of lanes, not signally, so close to vehicle in front, that if the driver sneezed you’d be cover in their snot & unless you come a cropper there’s little chance you’ll be stopped. Roadworthy – again a joke. A casual walk around any shopping centre car park & you can find dozens of cars that have bald tires, damaged bodywork, illegal mods & on. Twice in the last 9 mths I’ve phoned the police to report a serious road incident & both occasions no interest whatsoever!
To those reckless idiots racing on public roads as though its their personal race track and endangering innocent peoples lives…..I hope that your cars are impounded.
And OOh Yeah they crush your car while your are made to watch!!!
I just hate how they label the blitz as a “hoon” blitz when thats just a key word to defect motor enthusiasts who yes may have modified their car, but is probably safer then most of the junk you see roll under the radar.
all you naive people think also that “ohhh look he drives a skyline or a silvia, he MUST BE A HOON!!!” its typical stereotyping that really makes me angry.
tell me im a hoon for sitting at the lights after dropping my sister off from school, waiting for it to go red, while the police on the other side spots me, decides to throw an illegal u-turn, just so he can inspect my vehicle. i think thats just down right segregation.
Thats an NL Fairlane by Tickford in the background.. Just thought i’d point that out. A fairlane with a GT engine in it.. pretty cool i reckon.
“focusing on so-called ‘hoon’ driving”
more like focusing on import drivers… enough said.
Agree with hero
always get picked on in my import,never for doin anything,just cos my car looks like i’m gonna break the law in it,car see’s regular track work and can’t afford another car to get around in,but yet get harassed andtreated like a criminal for driving it to the shop,
everyday I see hundreds of people in stock cars breaking the law,but yet I’d get pulled over and they’d continue to do what they want
just another revenue raising tactic to help out our hopeless government!
Get over it, it makes sense to target the cars that imported and used as track cars. They’re most likely to be dodged up by their owners. You may think your being unfairly targeted but there is the minority that use the same car as you do that cut the springs, put tyres that are too wide or rub ball joints and wheel arches, cars with rock solid springs, cars with illegal tinting, darkened lights, stupidly low body kits etc… Backyard jobs like that force police to target your car because one day someone in a fully sick 200sx will go flying around a corner because their ego tells them their fully sick import can out corner a taxi, they’ll lose control and hit a kid walking home.
Hey John..
Blitzs do more for road safety? .. I guess that’s how come during Operation Ardent there were two fatalities across the blitz. Definately saving lives there. Infact.. I think they probably prevented at least 100 deaths by defecting all these cars. By golly gosh, I know my ride heght would certainly decapitate a child.. if only it was stock, then maybe I wouldn’ve cleared its head and the kid would still be alive.
And Minnow:
I can GUARENTEE you that enthusiests who own imports have the safest cars on the road. Most have VERY GOOD suspension and DO NOT cut springs, hence their cars could out corner a taxi by far, and safely. Wide tires have nothing to do with another users road safety. Alot of enthusiests have larger wheels/tires for better handling performance of their car. So no.. it’s not unsafe.
Again, rock solid springs? chances are they have stiff coilovers in their car, which provides a harder ride, however increases handling performance of the car immensely.
The amount of ‘backyard’ job imports is next to NOTHING in comparison to any other sort of car.
The amount of cars that are literally falling apart all over the road FAR outweighs anything, and yet still nothing is done about this.
I really hope this has helped clueless, misinformed individuals like yourself, realise that most ‘imports’ on our roads are far safer than any other vehicle.. that most import drivers DRIVE their cars, not try to outdo everyone on the road, and that the targeting of imports by police will NOT stop fatalities on the road. Nor will any blitz of this sort.
Just look at the statistics on what these fatalities are caused by. Next to none are ‘hooning.’
“Running from 3:00 pm to 11:00 pm last night, 94 motorists were nabbed for speeding, using mobile phones while driving, having unrestrained children in vehicles, and other traffic offences.
Mobile EPA testing stations also saw 10 motorists issued penalty notices for noisy exhausts and similar offences.
One driver had his vehicle impounded after Police caught him doing burnouts.
A learner driver, also wanted for an aggravated burglary and a serious assault, was caught with a blood alcohol reading of 0.066%”
—————————–
94 idiots caught, 10 illegal mods found, 1 hoon lost his car and 1 delinquent in custody – not bad for 8 hrs work.
Shark, it’s a complicated argument so I’ll explain slowly in the hope you may understand….
Blitzes allow police to target individual drivers, so for once dangerous drivers (tailgaters, drunks, drugged drivers, dills on their mobiles) may be caught and not just those going 3 kays over an arbitrary speed limit.
To me, a blitz says nothing about the police targeting certain cars – though I’m sure they probably do. I’m just happy that for once enforcement is about more than just exceeding a speed limit and getting a fine sent to you in the mail weeks after the event.
The sheer ignorance displayed by the “logical people” in the community is staggering to say the least.
Everyone cowering behind the keyboard spitting their dose of venom to place the readers into a state of panic and fear is what gets me the most. Not to mention the contradictions of minnow saying that we enthusiasts should get over the fact we are being targeted as a blanket solution on the chin YET is the only one to scrutinise the picture provided and tell us about the “hotted up cars” in the back JUST BECAUSE they are his kind of car. idiot.
Now to the issue at hand,
The import drivers like myself do not like being targeted because of the bad apples in the community but I cannot understand why a modified car is seen as a hazard. Lowered suspension, bigger brakes and wider wheels all aim to increase the performance of a car in a positive way but NOOOOOOOO its seen as an illegal modification that endangers the public!!!???? jesus how more narrow minded and ignorant can you be? As most have already stated there are many more dangerous and un-roadworthy cars out there that have equally dangerous owners who drive the car as if it was running race spec suspension with semi slicks when in fact its the polar opposite.
I want to drive my S15 (nissan coupe) without wondering when (not if) I’m to be pulled over for being in the firing line of a campaign that’s is purely designed to attract the ire of the voters and create fear and a mob mentality.
I just wish there was a public debate for this…we “hoon” import drivers would shut you “followers” of the anti modified car mob down hard.
(Said Extremely slowly for the benefit of your understanding and intellect) John PLEASE don’t sound condescending on a public forum. You are only going to get lynched by some angry “youngsters” like myself…
Exactly right John. Your whole statement “To me, a blitz says nothing about the police targeting certain cars – though I’m sure they probably do.” is an absolute contradiction.
So am I right in saying you now know and infact assume police target certain cars, but you don’t care about this at all?
See, the thing you fail to understand is that the emphasis of this blitz is on ‘defecting cars’ and ‘taking drunks off the road,’ and these factors are completely disproportionate to ‘catching people on their mobile phone.’
I completely agree with cracking down on drunk/drugged drives.. drivers who show no understanding of road rules. However this is not the case, and judging by the your contradictory statement, you know this very well, yet you don’t care.
And when you say “Blitzes allow police to target individual drivers” .. well that statement barely holds any grounds to your argument.
Infact it’s the complete opposite.
Blitzes infact allow police to target certain demographics or cars and car types to raise revenue for the state and federal government.
These car types are ‘modified cars,’ hence why there is such an emphasis on defecting vehicles.. because it raises so much revenue. And YES .. it is “drive a modified car, get a fine.” So much for policing the safety of our roads.
Why else would Operation Ardents main emphasis be on ‘hoons.’ Because the general demographic is “anyone who owns an import is a hoon,” which is an utterly disgraceful way of thinking.
I apologise for being condescending – I posted in haste, not that that’s an excuse. For the record, I do care that police may target drivers of imported/modified cars. I don’t think that’s fair at all. My original point – poorly made – was that I would be glad to see more police on the roads, to help detect the sort of bad driving that speed cameras don’t.
Totally agree with your last post John. Thanks for clarifying that =)
I would especially love it if there were massive polices blitzes in the city targeting violence and misbehaviour.
I tell you now.. I feel so much safer driving a car even knowing that people who are drunk and drugged are on the road, in comparison to walking through the city on a friday or saturday night where I feel as though I have a high chance of getting bashed around every pub I walk past.
Police really need to reassess and prioritise WHAT is going wrong on the roads, WHAT is going wrong on the streets, and start to address these issues, rather than being downwright pigs and targeting people/demographics to raise revenue.
I can only hope the state of policing gets better, Melbourne’s current situation is looking quite dim.
Nothing wrong with modified cars (imports or otherwise). I drove modified cars for many, many years.
Where the problem lies is the mods that go beyond the law and reason, and the inability of the cops to tell the difference.
discretion is a bastard of a thing when placed in the hands of someone with authority
I love how the general public love ganging up on the minority, all arabics are now terrorists and all import drivers are hoons. OF COURSE. Now lets let the government introduce laws impeding our rights to get rid of these people!!!
I drive like a gran on the roads and save it for track. Yet im afraid of the police purely because of the car i drive. Its easy enough for a footy fan to buy a pair a boots and a ball and go to practicularly any park to have a kick a round, but, if your a motorsports fan you have to shell out for a car, and wait for the track days which are only once every 2 months or so if you dont want to go interstate. NOt all of us can afford a second car so we drive RWC import cars on the streets and even then we’re treated like dirt.
I like to see how youre reacting when you get pulled over in you camry or something and get dicked for something outragous, slapped with a fine and get labelled a cancer causing hoon.
so can we all agree that this john bloke is a gigantic noob that got pwnt
Some of those modifications are done on the cheap, ie putting bigger rims on hubs with different off sets, hubs that are too large for the rim so there isnt enough metal around the stud, putting oversize spacers.. etc Noisy blow off valves, exhausts that are so loud they sound like 3 lawnmowers running at once, police are aware of this so as soon as you start modifying your car it catches the cops eye and they have to check it because there are young kids out there that do what i just stated with the same intention as you but doing it on the cheap. As soon as you start modifying your car your going to get hindered by the police. Besides your import, holden utes on super low springs are most likely to be targeted. Any vehicle that falls under this category will be targeted just most of the time its an import. So as long as your heavily modified import passes the pits and you dont go and put the illegal modifications back after passing your good as gold otherwise put up with it because the cops are looking for the 19year old with a skyline/200sx/supra modding his ride on the cheap.