Emergency services volunteers are using abandoned and confiscated hoon cars for crash rescue training.
The Victoria Police initiative has seen abandoned and forfeited cars given to the CFA and SES for volunteers to train on the jaws of life, a tool to cut accident victims from mangled vehicles.
Lilydale SES volunteers have already used the jaws on two seized cars.
Sergeant Dean Pickering, of Fawkner highway patrol, said there were ongoing issues with hoon behaviour in industrial areas, particularly Campbellfield.
He said two hoon cars collided in Lara Way last week as one driver tried to interfere in a police pursuit of the other.
“Victoria Police is in ongoing discussions with Hume council about a joint effort to hit the nail on the head,” Sergeant Pickering said. He added the police focus was on low-level speed, “where people think it’s OK to be just 10 km/h over the limit; a mindset we’re trying to knock on the head”.
Meanwhile, most road-users obeyed the rules during the Easter long weekend, according to highway patrol officers. The officer in charge for the metro north-west region, Acting Senior Sergeant Ashley Hodges, said that while a number of drivers were caught in unregistered vehicles, most others drove responsibly.
“Overall, we’re relatively happy with people’s road behaviour,” he said.
A young man killed in Box Hill on Easter Saturday was the only fatality on Victorian roads between Good Friday and Easter Monday.
The road safety initiative Operation Crossroads, which began on April 17 and ran until Easter Monday, targeted speed, alcohol and drug use.
Two drivers were booked for doing
107 k/mh in a 70km/h zone in Dalton Road, Lalor, at 6pm on Easter Saturday.
The drivers, a 32-year-old man from Roxburgh Park and a 44-year-old man from Epping, were fined $541, lost six demerit points and lost their licences for six months.
In the city of Whittlesea, 488 drivers were breath-tested, 15 unregistered vehicles were detected, 22 drivers were caught doing more than 25km/h over the limit, and six banned drivers were found at the wheel.
