The boy racers were creating a lot of noise, but residents were too intimidated to get involved and take down information. Photo: RNZ/Emily Ireland
Boy racers churning up rural roads are costing Carterton ratepayers thousands of dollars each month.
Mayor Ron Mark said eventually "these idiot racers, these clowns, are going to get it wrong and someone is going to get killed".
At a council meeting on Wednesday, infrastructure manager Johannes Ferreira said incidents of unauthorised street racing was increasing "significantly" throughout Carterton's roading network.
"It is a frustration when we have just resealed or remarked an area to turn up to go out every Monday and clean up tyres, tyre marks and damaged signs," Ferreira said.
"It's taking a lot of attention away from areas we should be focusing our attention to."
He said the bill to repair the damage was "getting up to a few thousand dollars a month".
Mark, who met with the Wairarapa police area commander this week, said it was not an easy issue to deal with.
He said the boy racing incidents often happened "in the wee hours of the morning", and created a lot of noise, but residents were too intimidated to get involved and take down information.
"There are a number of elderly residents [at one boy racing hotspot] and there is no way in Hades that an elderly couple are going to walk out there and photograph boy racers' number plates or ask them to stop.
"The intimidation factor is just too high and it's not worth the risk."
Mark said he sympathised with the police and acknowledged officers could only be in certain places if they knew things were happening.
"It comes down to intelligence and local residents getting on the phone and reporting things to the police while this stuff is happening when they see or hear it."
Ferreira said council officers were reporting each boy racing incident they were aware of to create a record for police.
In October last year, a boy racer incident at Carterton's industrial area captured national attention when police were pelted by bottles, rocks and fireworks.
At the time, Wairarapa police senior sergeant Gill Flower said it was "probably the worst" incident she had ever seen.
Because of the closed road network in the industrial area, police were able to trap more than 100 cars involved in the incident and dish out 100-plus tickets.
Following the October incident, Police Minister Mark Mitchell said current legislation could be strengthened.
At the moment, vehicles cannot be destroyed - crushed - until a third offence has been committed.
Mitchell had previously told media he would introduce legislation in 2024 that would give police new powers to seize vehicles from boy racers.
In December, he said there was still complexity to work through but that the new legislation was at the front of the queue for 2025.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
