Editorial: Boy racers deserve bad name

The scene of a crash after boy racers took each other on. Photo / File

Young people often think they get a hard time by adults waving the fingers at them for this and that.

But when you hear about the behaviour of some, you despair.

Today we report about two horror traffic incidents on Pukehangi Rd involving speeding young lads.

The first is Jesse Khan Dixon, a 22-year-old who took up a challenge from another young guy to have a race in their cars on Pukehangi Rd in April this year.

Dixon had been drinking too much to drive. The two drivers sped off chasing each other. Witnesses estimated the cars were travelling between 140km/h and 200km/h through 50km/h and 70km/h zones.

Dixon was only 1m behind when the lead driver lost control on a bend and crashed, hitting a concrete wall. Dixon checked the driver (who had critical injuries) and left the scene.

In a separate incident, David Kenneth Carmichael, 21, admitted his shocking driving in June this year, also on Pukehangi Rd. Carmichael lost control at speed and skidded about 15m towards a member of the public before coming to a stop 2m from where she was standing. This guy was lucky as no one was hurt.

Rotorua has had its share of boyracer activity. The Lakefront was the first meeting point when the craze first burst onto the scenes. Then they liked to meet up on country roads to do burnouts and hold informal meetings.

To be fair, we haven't had as many tragedies on our roads as a result of boy racers as some other areas. Let's keep it that way.