TYRES popping like gun shots have become an all too familiar sound for residents near Albert River Place at Tamborine.
Hoons are wreaking havoc in the area connected to Waterford Tamborine Road, performing donuts and even street racing for hours at a time.
This is not new for people who have lived in the area for more than 10 years. They are fed up with reporting the chaos as it unfolds in the early hours of the morning only for it to happen again weeks or months later.
Resident Tatiana Anikieff said the situation was beyond a joke.
“This is affecting our health because of the stress we go through every night wondering if it will happen. There is no pattern,” she said.
“They come up and down my street yelling and screaming and park in our driveway so we can not get out even if we wanted to.
“One night they blew a tyre and traveled near my driveway to change it. You can still see the tyre marks. Four tyres blew in one night and it sounded like gun shots.
“It is so embarrassing and I am sick of people asking me about (the state of the road) and making jokes.”
Resident Andrew Blunden called on the State government to work with Logan City Council to install a 24 hour permanent camera to deter the hoons.
“It is a disgrace. The road is completely black and there are tyre carcasses everywhere,” he said.
“Hooning brings the value of our area down and destroys livability. This has been a problem since 2013 when the road was widened.
“The hoons just laugh at police because they can escape multiple ways – either back to Logan Village, up Tamborine Mountain or towards Beaudesert.”
“We the people would like the state and council to get together and mount a permanent camera at this location and traffic calming at the Albert River place entrance to Waterford Tamborine road.”
Mr Blunden said it was difficult to report hoons to police because of the detail required – registration plate numbers included – to file a report.
“You have to place yourself at risk to get those rego numbers and it should not be our job to get beaten up while trying to take those photos,” he said.
Jimboomba police Senior Sergeant Peter Waugh said police have handed out many traffic infringements and would continue to monitor the area.
“We are aware of the location and do regular covert and overt patrols,” he said.
“There is a speed camera site with a covert police car on Waterford Tamborine Road near that location.
“From the people who have been detected, it appears to be a combination of locals and some people from out of town.”
Scenic Rim LNP MP Jon Krause said the road was no longer part of his electorate but he had lobbied for action for years.
“The fact is this section of Waterford Tamborine Road near Albert River Place is so wide you could land a jumbo jet in there,” he said.
“That’s why I said TMR needs to look at the road and see if they can remove this attraction by putting in an island or other physical impediment in place so the road is no longer a hoon magnet.
“Permanent CCTV would be welcome. I call on Logan City and the Queensland Police to work towards this.”
A Department of Transport and Main Roads spokesperson said CCTV was installed for traffic monitoring purposes only and the department “does not install cameras to monitor instances of hooning”.
A Logan City Council spokesperson said police enforcement was the most effective method of dealing with the problem.
“The council has previously deployed mobile safety cameras to the area in partnership with police, however it is not viable to install a permanent safety camera in this area,” the spokesperson said.
“It is essential that people report hooning incidents to Queensland Police Service so they can use this date to focus resources.
“Residents should have as much detail about the incident as possible, including the time, location, exact nature of offence and details of cars involved.”
Logan City Councillor Laurie Koranski said council needed to continue to work with police and the State government to combat the issue.
“We installed no parking signs and have deployed our mobile safety camera to the area on multiple occasions,” she said.
“I certainly welcome any additional support the state may be able to offer.”
Logan Country Safe City chairman Dave Kenny supported measures to make roads as unattractive as possible for hoons.
“The best thing to do is to install the yellow rubber blocks on the road so that when hoons try to do donuts they will rip their back ends out,” he said.
“Like a traffic island – people do not run over them unless they are doing the wrong thing.
“If they can put a camera up then it would send the hoons elsewhere. They will eventually run out of other places to go.”
Mr Blunden said the community would find other ways to deal with the issue if a government solution was not reached.
“We still have to tackle the problem because of where we live so we will have to think of other ways,” he said.
Logan MP Linus Power was contacted for comment but did not respond by deadline.
