Vic hoon legislation not working: police

Victoria's top traffic cop has admitted the state's anti-hoon laws may not be
working after the deaths of five teenagers in a high-speed crash in Melbourne's
north.
Police now believe the 19-year-old driver, Steven Johnstone, was affected by alcohol
when his high performance late model sedan slammed into a tree at 140km/h on Plenty
Road at Mill Park early on Sunday.
It is believed the apprentice roof tiler was recently caught speeding 25km/h over
the limit.
And since the smash, three Victorian teenagers have been caught driving at high
speed within 10km of the site of the crash site.
One of them, a 19-year-old probationary driver from South Morang travelling at
165km/h in a 70km/h zone in Reservoir, was a friend of one of the five youths
killed.
"This is a desperately sad situation," Deputy Commissioner Ken Lay told ABC Radio on
Monday.
"We're doing some evaluations now to try and understand the road safety benefits (of
the anti-hoon laws).
"But ... last year there was an increase in the deaths of 18 to 20-year-olds.
"This hasn't been the panacea."
But he defended the new probationary schemes and short-term education and
enforcement as "on track" as part of a raft of measures to tackle young driver
behaviour.
"Where we seem to have a gap is in the longer term more strategic stuff," Mr Lay said.
Since the anti-hoon legislation was introduced two and a half years ago, police have
seized almost 10,000 cars.
"We're seeing a recidivism rate of about one per cent, which the researchers tell me
is very, very low," Mr Lay said.
Mr Lay also flagged the possibility of denying driver's licences to young people
with behavioural problems.
He said the police needed to "go back to the drawing board" and consider research
showing some people were "predisposed" to being involved in crashes.
He said some young people who showed signs of inattention, hyperactivity and a
propensity to commit crimes in their youth were more likely to become road accident
statistics later.
"I don't know what the answer is ... researchers, health professionals,
educationalists need to do this piece of work for us to help us understand that and
adapt it to people as they move into an age to drive motor cars," Mr Lay told
reporters.
"It may well be that down the track we're in a far better position to determine
whether a particular person should be driving or not."
Mr Lay would not rule out a plan to prevent them driving.
The uncle of 18-year-old Anthony Iannetta, 18, killed in the fatal car crash and his
15-year-old seriously injured sister Elissa, said youths caught speeding should have
their cars "crushed".
"You can't get through to some young people today, you can't get through their thick
skulls," Santo Sutera told AAP.
"Last night people were speeding in the same area.
"I honestly believe it's not the car that kills people it's people behind the wheel.
"Just get rid of their car, that will make them think twice."
University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education associate professor Erica
Frydenberg said more needed to be done by teachers and parents to teach young people
"coping skills" before adolescence.
She said it was significant that Johnstone might have been upset by gatecrashers at
a party he had attended in nearby Ivanhoe.
"My goodness, why did he pack those young people into the car and hoon down the road
at 150km/h, there are different ways of dealing with things going wrong," she said.