The Sunshine Coast Highway Patrol is targeting hooning and modified vehicles that cause a nuisance and disrupt people’s lives.
Modified vehicles are often mistaken for ‘hooning’ and this operation will have a focus upon noisy cars through Operation Suppress to detect and deter defective and modified vehicles, focusing efforts on high density tourist zones like Mooloolaba and Alexandra Headland.
The ongoing operation, which began on 21 June, has seen police conducting a variety of enforcement and intelligence gathering activities to predominantly take action against vehicles that have been modified to be noisy.
Sunshine Coast Highway Patrol Officer in Charge Senior Sergeant Shane Panoho said efforts on Operation Suppress will be ramped up over the weekend.
“We have already seen some positive results in reducing the number of modified and defective noisy vehicles on the road, mostly from the Mooloolaba and Alexandra Headland area,” Senior Sergeant Panoho said.
“However, in addition to proactive patrols and intercepts, we’re also targeting specific people that the community has reported to be driving cars that have been illegally modified.
“We have listened to the Sunshine Coast community’s concerns about how intimidating and disruptive noisy vehicles are, so we initiated Operation Suppress to address that.”
Police have the authority to direct vehicle operators for a sound level check at an authorised business to ensure the vehicle complies with the Australian standards applicable for that vehicle.
An example of this is an 18-year-old Palmview man, who has now lost his licence, after a string of traffic offences.
The man was intercepted by police on 13 July in Dulong after several complaints about his alleged dangerous driving and noisy vehicle.
Police inspected the vehicle and noted several illegal modifications and issued him a Traffic Infringement Notice (TIN) for failing to display clearly legible green P plate(s) worth $258 and a TIN for driving a defective vehicle that does not comply with vehicle standards worth $161.
He was also ordered to get a sound test competed.
This is in addition to a total of 10 TINS worth $2757 and 14 demerit points that he had received since 24 January.
“Please know that if you have a noisy vehicle, we are increasing our efforts to target this specifically because our community has told us they do not accept this type of behaviour and nor do we,” Senior Sergeant Panoho said.
“They are reporting your manner of driving via the Hoon hotline on 134 666 and we will be following up with you.”
For those interested to know if their vehicle is too noisy, the Queensland Transport website has a list of authorised businesses to conduct a proactive noise test: qld.gov.au/transport/vehicle-safety/find-approved-person
