Public tackle noisy boy racers

Police are welcoming a national campaign to ban noisy car exhausts, which has been launched by Christchurch residents fed up with "boy racers" destroying their peace.

The charitable trust, Noise Off, is recruiting people from around the country through a website to put pressure on the Government (link at bottom of page).

The groups founders, Cashmere resident Jonathan Gillard and fellow solicitor Richard Raymond say they have been approached by people whose lives are being made miserable by exhausts as loud as 100 decibels.

The head of Canterbury's strategic traffic unit, Senior Sergeant Trevor Pullen, said moves were afoot to introduce objective tests to measure exhaust noise.

New rules introduced by the Government earlier this year stopped short of setting a maximum level.

In Britain, car exhausts can't be louder than 74 decibels, whether modified or not.

The New Zealand limit is 81 decibels but the exhaust can be modified as long is it is not "noticeably or significantly louder".

A Christchurch prosecution of a driver for having a noisy exhaust had recently failed because the car had a warrant of fitness.

Mr Pullen, who is also on a Christchurch City Council committee to look at the problem, said at present, assessing noisy vehicles was "fairly subjective".

"If the individual police officer can hear the exhaust from inside the patrol car with the windows closed from two blocks away, then it's too loud.

"But what could be permissible in the middle of the afternoon on a city street can sound quite different in the Cashmere Hills in the middle of the night -- especially when you multiply that by more than one or two of them."

The Ministry of Transport has indicated that tests for exhaust noise could be introduced at warrant of fitness testing stations next year -- but a change of Government could affect the pace of change, Mr Pullen said.

He said he had a lot of sympathy for residents bothered by "boy racers".

"Most of them are quite responsible but there is a hardcore that are a pain in the backside," he said.

"Some of the modified exhaust pipes you see look more like the business-end of a howitzer than anything else."

Police officers could "green sticker" cars with modified exhausts, essentially cancelling their warrants and ordering owners to fix the problem.

"But some of them simply drive home, take off the modified exhaust and go and get another warrant, then go straight out and refit it."

Drivers operating noisy vehicles can be fined $150, and can also be fined $250 and accrue 10 demerit points for operating a noisy vehicle "in a matter likely to cause annoyance".

Mr Pullen said police encouraged residents bothered by noisy cars to notify them.

- NZPA