State Member for Wallsend, Ms Sonia Hornery MP, will today move a Notice of Motion in the NSW Parliament, calling for tough ‘hoon’ legislation to be implemented to cover dirt bikes.
Current laws in NSW do not cover dirt bikes that are caught riding through local streets and parks, terrorising local neighbourhoods.
Legislation in other States allows for Police to impound vehicles for a period of time after riders are caught offending. For repeat offenders, vehicles are eventually taken by Police and sold.
Ms Hornery has been working with local Police on Operation Ironbark which has been targeting unregistered, uninsured and unlicensed dirt bike riding on local streets in the Wallsend electorate.
As a result, it is clear that hoon legislation that allows for confiscation of the offending vehicle is desperately needed.
Quotes attributable to Member for Wallsend, Sonia Hornery
“Our neighbourhoods are continually being terrorised by a small handful of illegal dirt bike riders who continually ignore the fines that are being handed out by Police.”
“In the last week, one particular rider was handed almost $5000 in fines and within 24 hours, my office received calls, emails, photos and videos of him riding his bike with two passengers along public roads again.”
“Having worked closely with Police for the last few months on this issue, it is clear Police are just as frustrated as the rest of the community and have called for hoon legislation or some form of confiscation procedures to be put in place.”
“I will therefore move a Notice of Motion calling for the Roads and Transport Minster to look into introducing the legislation as a priority.”
“There needs to be a further deterrent to ensure we get this handful of riders off our roads. Taking their bikes away would be a good start and for repeat offenders, losing them for good would be even better.”