Australian hoons beware: Gov’t will smash your car and post the video online

A program announced today by the government of New South Wales will not just confiscate the cars or bikes of those caught ‘hooning’ along the streets. Once the vehicles are impounded, the sadistic officials want to methodically destroy the vehicles and film the whole thing as a sort of ’scared straight’ for young motorists.

Officials think the move is a fair one, in the ‘turn-about is fair play’ sense; the hoons are putting lives and property at risk, so the government will take their property and break it. And then tape it, and make them and others watch it. Sounds like a giant waste to us - better to sell the cars at auction and use the funds to educate people, or build local tracks, or just about anything but smashing up fast cars. One has to wonder: haven’t they seen the ‘Fast and the Furious’ series of films? That didn’t deter any hoonage - quite the opposite. And it’s full of smashed street racers.

Also planned for the high-speed video will be crash evaluations for the common modifications hoons make to their cars. That certainly approaches something a bit more useful than smashing fast cars and showing the film to young drivers.

At least the NSW government will require a conviction for street racing before destroying any cars. So, like all good drivers should, if you want to go racing, find a track - especially in NSW. If you want your car smashed up on video and shown to a gymnasium full of teenagers, however, by all means keep hooning up the streets of Sydney. Next up, Los Angeles? Or maybe London? We hope this trend starts and stops here.