Council plans to use CCTV to catch boy racers

DO NOT DONUT ‘Donut’ is a term used for spinning a rear-wheel-drive car in circles, leaving unsightly tyremarks on a road.


Anton McNulty

BOY racers performing ‘donuts’ and other illegal manoeuvres on the public road have been warned that ‘Big Brother’ may be watching.
The local authority has warned that it intends to erect CCTV cameras at locations throughout the county where the illegal manoeuvres are being performed to catch the culprits. CCTV has been used by Mayo County Council to tackle illegal dumping, and it believes the cameras will act as an deterrent to boy racers. If the drivers are caught on camera, the Council says it will forward the footage onto the Gardaí.
‘Donut’ is a term used for spinning a rear-wheel-drive car in circles, resulting in unsightly tyremarks on a road.
Noel Gibbons, the Safety Officer with Mayo County Council said a blind eye to the activity can no longer be taken and that action must be taken.
“While the tyre marks are vandalising public property, the dangers posed are of much more concern. There is also an issue of parental responsibility involved here, and I would appeal directly to the parents of these drivers to stop turning a blind eye to what’s going on. Do not allow your son or daughter who is engaging in this behaviour access to a vehicle.
“Thirty-eight percent of those killed on our roads last year were under 25 years of age. We want young people to be aware of their speed, and our message is if you must speed, take it on to a race track.”
“There is also the safety fear that these cars could get a blow out on their way home after doing these donuts on the road,” he added.

‘Constant irritant’
Mr Gibbons said the noise from the cars and the screeching tyres were a constant irritant to local residents. One residents said their lives have been turned into ‘a living nightmare’ by the activities of boy racers doing handbrake turns and donuts at a junction near their home.
“They will spin the car round and round and round in the junction four, five times creating a huge screeching noise, burning rubber,” he said.
“From one o’clock in the night, you’ll be woken up through the night. It’s like having a new born baby in the house again,” he added.
Crossmolina-based councillor and member of the Joint Policing Committee, Michael Loftus welcomed the initiative and called on residents to report any such driving activities to gardaí.
“We are working with the community, and we would ask the community to phone the Gardaí and to give them registration numbers.
“The Gardai are willing to take a case to court with a statement from a member of the public because this is dangerous both to the people who are driving the cars - because they are out of control when they are donuting – but also to residents in that area.
“If a pedestrian was there and that car loses control we would definitely have people very severely injured or, unfortunately, killed,” he warned.