{"id":365108,"date":"2026-04-05T16:49:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/365108\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T16:49:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:49:17","slug":"manawatu-boy-racers-police-association-awaits-new-law-after-horrendously-disappointing-200-car-gathering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/365108\/","title":{"rendered":"Manawat\u016b boy racers: Police association awaits new law after \u2018horrendously disappointing\u2019 200-car gathering"},"content":{"rendered":"

New legislation to deter boy racers and give police stronger powers to crack down on them is going through Parliament at the moment.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Anti-Social Road Use Legislation Amendment Bill will create new offences and penalties for dangerous drivers and will make it easier for their vehicles to be seized or destroyed.<\/p>\n

Anti-social road users are those who fail to stop for police while speeding or driving dangerously, participate in unauthorised street racing, do burnouts, carry out intimidating convoys and unlawful dirt bike gatherings or cause excessive noise by taking part in siren battles.<\/p>\n

Watt said it was a \u201cgood piece of legislation\u201d, which, importantly, gave police powers to shut down certain areas and roads to prevent them from being used for these activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we understand the proposed law, the ability to assess, predict and then put in place a plan to close down certain areas will have a positive effect on ensuring events such as these are stopped in their tracks before they can have a negative impact on public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

The biggest challenge for police, though, was changing the mindset of people attending these events, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey simply don\u2019t realise the risk they are putting themselves and other general members of the public at risk and in harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was \u201cso disappointing\u201d when people attending the events themselves were hurt.<\/p>\n

In March last year, emergency services were delayed in reaching a man who had been struck by a car doing burnouts<\/a> because attendees to the Waikanae event blocked them from getting to him.<\/p>\n

In Levin in May, five bystanders were hit by cars at another boy-racer meet, including one young woman whose legs were run over.<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2024, a teenager even lost half of his leg after being hit by a car doing burnouts.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone always says, \u2018it\u2019s never going to happen to me,\u2019 until it does,\u201d Watt said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of families out there that are still grieving because of prior decisions made by people behind the wheel. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat will continue to happen until we get that mindset change and people realise you\u2019re literally putting your life and potentially someone else\u2019s life at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manawat\u016b area commander Inspector Marty Gray said the safety of officers was paramount when attending these events, and that the \u201cviolence and aggressive behaviour on display\u201d was \u201cabsolutely unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo police vehicles were damaged by projectiles thrown from a crowd on State Highway 1 near Rongotea Rd. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Officers had a full suite of tactical gear and options available to them and were \u201cvery well-trained\u201d.<\/p>\n

Regardless of this, \u201cthey shouldn\u2019t have to be put in positions where they have to tolerate that type of behaviour . . . it\u2019s just, essentially, violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last night, police had projectiles thrown at them, he said.<\/p>\n

Gray said he had concerns about the escalating level of aggression anti-social road users were showing cops, but they anticipated a level of violence and prepared for it accordingly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe prepare for the unexpected, but we\u2019re not sure what will come at us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud of my officers. It\u2019s another example of them putting themselves in harm\u2019s way to make sure the rest of New Zealand is safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the planned event around the rural outskirts of Palmerston North and Horowhenua over Saturday night, police launched Operation Golf to disrupt dangerous and anti-social driving before it could escalate.<\/p>\n

Gray said staff from Wellington, Whanganui, and Manawat\u016b worked together to target last night\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice launched Operation Golf in order to disrupt dangerous and anti-social driving activity before it could escalate. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cA significant amount of resource was put into this operation, and I also want to thank the many people who made reports to police. Those reports helped us to track the group and stop them before they could set up somewhere as one large group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allowed us to successfully interrupt multiple gatherings and remind participants they\u2019re not welcome here. We\u2019ve seen the damage and distress these people inflict on our communities and we\u2019re not having it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While final enforcement numbers were still being confirmed, initial results included 48 infringements issued, seven vehicles ordered off the road, seven vehicles impounded by police, and two vehicles impounded by court bailiffs, with multiple driver licence suspensions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose involved in this activity can expect ongoing, co-ordinated responses and a continued zero-tolerance approach from police,\u201d Gray said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New legislation to deter boy racers and give police stronger powers to crack down on them is going…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[191911,74,86498,3110,27495,15117,155673,42188,3685,57982,5838,191910,8307,10509,130,5971,117,111,43,139,69,675,2572,29056,31122,312,5132,1324,9100,131,1361,165,9202,122496,1533],"class_list":{"0":"post-365108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-200car","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-antisocial","11":"tag-association","12":"tag-awaits","13":"tag-boy","14":"tag-demonstrates","15":"tag-disappointing","16":"tag-events","17":"tag-gathering","18":"tag-help","19":"tag-horrendously","20":"tag-law","21":"tag-manawat","22":"tag-more","23":"tag-need","24":"tag-new","25":"tag-new-zealand","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-newzealand","28":"tag-nz","29":"tag-police","30":"tag-president","31":"tag-proposed","32":"tag-racers","33":"tag-says","34":"tag-steve","35":"tag-stop","36":"tag-such","37":"tag-than","38":"tag-that","39":"tag-their","40":"tag-tracks","41":"tag-watt","42":"tag-will"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}