TASH Collins’ husband and children were playing in their backyard a few weeks ago when she heard some commotion outside.
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A white ute had just flown through the roundabout situated behind the backyard of their Bandiana home.
Dismissing it as just a passing idiot, Mrs Collins became more concerned when the same car returned to the roundabout and stopped, the driver revving the engine.
She then filmed the driver, who was carrying a passenger, doing a burnout before speeding off down the street.
“He would have seen us at the fence and thought to himself I’ve got an audience here,” she said.
“We were far from impressed.
“The thing that got me was that there was no way he wouldn’t have seen me filming, but he still did it.
“He just didn’t care about the consequences.”
The vehicle, a white Holden ute with a distinctive R.M. Williams sticker, quickly drove off after screeching through the roundabout.
On a normally quiet Bandiana street, the skid marks left on the roundabout still stand out.
“It worries me if this guy comes back while our kids are playing in the backyard,” Mrs Collins said.
“The roundabout is pretty close to our back fence, it wouldn’t take much for them to come right into the yard.
“Hoons think this sort of thing is a joke until someone gets hurt, then it’s innocent people who are left to pick up the pieces when something goes wrong.
“You want your children to be able to go outside and play, ride their bikes on the street and that sort of thing, but you also want them to be safe when they do that.”
Constant hoon driving near their old house in West Wodonga was part of the reason the Collins family decided to move to Bandiana.
Much to their frustration, the incident occurred within a week of them moving in – just after dinner time when the summer heat was beginning to relent and the kids could go outside.
He just didn’t care about the consequences.
- Tash Collins
“The people that do this sort of stuff, particularly in residential areas, are obviously not the brightest people going around,” Sergeant Cameron Roberts from the Wodonga Highway Patrol said.
“So much can go wrong with this sort of thing.
“Even at low speed, if you get some unexpected traction you can come off the road in any direction.”
Sergeant Roberts said any help the community could provide, including footage, would help police catch and prosecute offenders.
“It’s great to get good dashcam or smartphone footage, but from a legal perspective we need to produce the person who captured that footage in order to use it in court,” he said.
“If someone has footage of these kinds of offences and are prepared to step up, we’d love to hear from them.
“If we can teach people a very public lesson about this then we’re all for it.”