Unit 5: Hoons or harassed
TRAFFIC SAFETY ESSENTIALS
For Young Road Users …not crash test dummies
UNIT 5: Hoons or harassed
CONTENTS
About Traffic Safety Essentials ...................................................................................................................... 2
Background to UNIT 5: Hoons or harassed ................................................................................................... 3
Essential learning ........................................................................................................................................... 3
Links to AusVELS ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Problem recognition: Identifying who are hoons and why they are a problem ..................................... 7
Problem recognition: Finding out what the community thinks ............................................................. 9
Problem solving: What is being done about hooning? ....................................................................... 10
Taking action: Making a difference in the local community ................................................................ 12
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES .................................................................................................................. 13
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Unit 5: Hoons or harassed
About Traffic Safety Essentials
Young people are at risk on our roads, particularly as passengers and when they begin driving. Road crashes
are the single biggest killer of young Victorians aged 16-25 years. Victoria’s Road Safety Strategy 2012-2022
highlights the importance of road safety for young people, especially from the point at which they prepare
for and begin to use the road as drivers. This starts just before they begin learning to drive right through to
when they are fully licensed and have progressed through Victoria’s Graduated Licensing System.
Traffic Safety Essentials has been developed as the key Victorian road safety education resource for
secondary schools with a focus on Year 10. It is in Year 10 that most young people become eligible for a
Learner Permit, and begin the process of learning to drive a car. Traffic Safety Essentials links to AusVELS
and is designed to assist secondary schools to implement a core road safety education program at Year 10.
It is focused on helping young people to improve their decision making skills, develop an understanding of
consequences and improve the safety of themselves and their peers.
This Year 10 classroom program takes an integrated approach to key road safety issues for young people at
this critical point in their lives. It is around this time that they begin to learn to drive and also to travel more
independently, often with their peers. Unfortunately young people can often be involved in tragic road
crashes through poor decision making at critical times. The program takes this into account and features six
units:
Unit 1: Driving or just steering
Unit 2 Focused or fractured
Unit 3: Speeding and stopping
Unit 4 Alcohol and other drugs
Unit 5: Hoons or harassed
Unit 6: Travel choices
All units contain a number of individual classroom activities, each of which are grouped into three sections
that move students through a process, based around theories of behaviour change:
Problem recognition
Problem solving
Taking action
You can find details of other road safety education resources and programs that link with Traffic Safety
Essentials at: www.roadsafetyeducation.vic.gov.au
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Unit 5: Hoons or harassed
Background to UNIT 5: Hoons or harassed
The term ‘hoon’ is an Australian colloquial term used to describe anyone who drives in a manner that is
anti-social, in what are usually high performance or heavily modified vehicles. Many of these vehicles have
been modified in illegal ways to obtain maximum performance or a ‘wow’ factor. Many of these vehicles
have after-market car audio systems including sub-woofers that can create a lot of noise. Drivers of such
vehicles may go ‘cruising’ which can involve illegal street racing or attempts to ‘pick up’ fellow cruisers of
the opposite sex. The term is also used as a verb: “to hoon”, or, “to hoon around” meaning to act in a
reckless manner. 3
3
Wikipedia - www.wikipedia.org
Anti-hoon laws in Victoria
Anti-hoon laws were introduced in Victoria in July 2006 and gave Victoria Police the power to impound,
immobilise or permanently confiscate vehicles driven in a dangerous manner. Changes to the anti-hoon
laws from July 2011, allow for police to seize a vehicle and impound or immobilise it for 30 days (increased
from 48 hours) if they have reasonable grounds for believing a driver has committed a hoon-related
offence. A vehicle may be impounded or immobilised, regardless of who owns it and whether the driver is
the registered owner.
The changes that became law on 1 July, 2011 also include a new, more serious category of offences that
include:
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a repeat offence of unlicensed driving
driving at 70 km/h or more over the speed limit
a repeat offence of driving with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.10 or higher
a repeat offence of driving with more than the prescribed concentration of drugs in the person's
blood or oral fluid.
Any driver committing a second hoon-related offence within three years may have their vehicle impounded
for up to three months. If a person is found guilty of three hoon-related offences inside three years, their
vehicle can be permanently forfeited by the court in addition to other serious penalties including a fine of
up to 240 penalty units (in excess of $28,000) and/or a period of imprisonment of up to two years. The
driver will also incur any demerit points and/or licence loss penalties applying to the underlying offence.4
From 20 February 2013, new legislation requires drivers and riders found guilty by a court of certain highrisk driving offences (where their vehicle has been impounded or immobilised) to complete the courtordered VicRoads Safe Driving Program if they have not done so before.
4
Victoria Police - www.police.vic.gov.au
Essential learning
As an outcome of this unit students will understand:
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using the road as a hoon is both illegal and unsafe
hooning or driving in an anti-social/illegal manner has serious consequences
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Unit 5: Hoons or harassed
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modifying vehicles can be both illegal and dangerous.
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Links to AusVELS
Health and Physical Education
Dimension: Health knowledge and promotion
Learning focus: Students examine perceptions of challenge, risk and safety in a variety of settings such as in the home,
school, the workplace and the community. They contrast risks that promote personal and social growth with those
that endanger health. They discuss ways to balance risk and safety, and refine and evaluate harm minimisation
strategies.
Standard: They compare and evaluate perceptions of challenge, risk and safety. They demonstrate understanding of
appropriate assertiveness and resilience strategies. They analyse the positive and negative health outcomes of a range
of personal behaviours and community actions.
Civics and Citizenship
Dimension: Community engagement
Learning focus: Students apply their knowledge about representative democracy and systems of government by
researching and proposing possible action on an issue relevant to them at the local, state or national level. They
explore the potential impact of the issue on different groups within the community, and the effectiveness of the
democratic process in balancing individual and community rights in resolving the issue.
Standard: At Level 10, students draw on a range of resources, including the mass media to articulate and defend their
own opinions about political, social and environmental issues in national and global contexts. They contest, where
appropriate, the opinions of others. They develop an action plan which demonstrates their knowledge of a social or
environmental issue and suggest strategies to raise community awareness of it. They participate in a range of
citizenship activities including those with a national or global perspective, at school and in the local community.
Thinking Processes
Learning focus: Students develop questioning techniques appropriate to the complexity of ideas they investigate, to
probe into and elicit information from varying sources. They work with others to modify their initial questions and to
develop further their understanding that sources of information may vary in their validity.
Students explore differing perspectives and issues in depth and identify a range of creative possibilities. They are
encouraged to examine and acknowledge a range of perspectives on an issue and to accommodate diversity. They
engage positively with novelty and difference and are innovative in the ways they define and work through tasks, and
find solutions. They practise creative thinking behaviours and strategies to find solutions, synthesise information and
understand complex ideas.
Dimension: Reasoning, processing and inquiry
Standard: At Level 10, students discriminate in the way they use a variety of sources. They generate questions that
explore perspectives. They process and synthesise complex information and complete activities focusing on problem
solving and decision making which involve a wide range and complexity of variables and solutions. They employ
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appropriate methodologies for creating and verifying knowledge in different disciplines. They make informed
decisions based on their analysis of various perspectives and, sometimes contradictory, information.
Dimension: Creativity
Standard: At Level 10, students experiment with innovative possibilities within the parameters of a task. They take
calculated risks when defining tasks and generating solutions. They apply selectively a range of creative thinking
strategies to broaden their knowledge and engage with contentious, ambiguous, novel and complex ideas.
Information and Communications Technology
Dimension: ICT for communicating
Learning Focus: Students expand their skills in locating information on websites by using general and specialised
directories. They refine their searching techniques to get more precise results by using within suitable search engines,
proximity operators, which specify where one term in a document must appear in relation to another term.
Standard: Students apply techniques to locate more precise information from websites, including searching general
and specialised directories, and applying proximity operators.
Communication
Dimension: Presenting
Learning focus: Students experiment with communicating complex ideas in a variety of ways. They organise their
information, ideas and opinions into a coherent structure, select and adjust their mode of presentation to suit
purpose and audience, and make appropriate adjustments in response to an audience.
Standard: At Level 10, students demonstrate their understanding of the relationship between form, content and
mode, and select suitable resources and technologies to effectively communicate. They use subject specific language
and conventions in accordance with the purpose of their presentation to communicate complex information. They
provide constructive feedback to others and use feedback and reflection in order to inform their future presentations.
Interpersonal Development
Dimension: Working in teams
Learning Focus: Students take opportunities to work in diverse teams within and beyond school, including the
workplace, to complete tasks with several interrelated components. Some of these tasks are managed by the team,
with limited teacher input.
Standard: At Level 10, students work collaboratively, negotiate roles and delegate tasks to complete complex tasks in
teams. Working with the strengths of a team they achieve agreed goals within set timeframes. Students describe how
they respect and build on the ideas and opinions of team members and clearly articulate or record their reflections on
the effectiveness of learning in a team. They develop and implement strategies for improving their contributions to
achieving the team goals.
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Unit 5: Hoons or harassed
Problem recognition: Identifying who are hoons and why they are a problem
Preparation
The class will need access to the Internet to conduct research, or this can be done as a homework activity.
What to do
Discussion
Write this statement on the board:
Hoons are young idiot drivers who don’t care about others.
Ask and discuss:
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Is this statement true?
What is a hoon? (Come to a shared agreement about what a hoon is)
Why do some young people act like hoons?
Ask what students already know about the anti-hoon laws.
Continuum Activity
Set up a continuum in a clear space in the classroom. Have signs with ‘Agree’ displayed at one end and
‘Disagree’ at the other. Direct students to position themselves along the continuum where their viewpoint
is after you read each of the following statements. Invite individual students to say why they have
positioned themselves as they have and compare and contrast viewpoints. Use these statements as a guide
– encourage the students to generate some of their own as the activity proceeds:
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a modified car is a public display of the driver’s personality
modifying a vehicle is just another art form
hoon driving is highly skilled and should not be illegal
there is nothing wrong with hoon driving, it’s just there is no place to do it but on the roads
driving as a hoon is not dangerous
belonging to a hoon group is no different than choosing to hang out with any other group
the police should not be allowed to confiscate a hoon’s vehicle
the police should not be allowed to confiscate a vehicle if it doesn’t belong to the hoon
young drivers are unfairly targeted by authorities.
A bit more info…
Examples of questions to focus on:
 What is hoon driving?
 Is hoon driving a problem? Why?
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Unit 5: Hoons or harassed
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Are there different types of hooning?
What do the terms ‘impounded’, ‘immobilised’ and ‘forfeited’ mean?
Can my car be impounded if I am not driving it?
How long can a car be impounded for?
How do you get a car back once it is impounded?
Are there any other consequences of hooning?
How do Victoria’s anti-hoon laws compare with other Australian states and other countries?
Which seem most effective and why?
Present Findings
Each group should develop a summary of their findings and deliver this to the rest of the class.
Class Debate
Conduct a class debate on one of the following topics:
Anti-hoon laws unfairly target young males.
Anti-hoon laws are an over-reaction to drivers displaying their skills.
Motorsport promotes and encourages hooning.
Computer games and movies that involve racing on the street encourage hooning.
Internet Research
In small groups direct students to use the Internet to search for information about anti-hoon laws and the
consequences of being caught hooning.
Share the findings with the class.
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Unit 5: Hoons or harassed
Problem recognition: Finding out what the community thinks
Preparation
Students will need to produce copies of their surveys or they could develop an online survey using one of
the many free online survey tools (search for ‘free online survey maker’), if practical.
What to do
Survey Friends and Family
To get a better understanding of attitudes to the hoon driver problem in their community, have students in
small groups develop, conduct and analyse a survey about hoons.
Working in small groups students should:
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identify the research question(s)
develop a survey tool
survey at least 20 people from different age groups (students can survey family members and
friends)
analyse the data and draw some conclusions.
A bit more info…
Understanding hoon drivers
 Establish what people think a hoon is.
 Identify what driving behaviours are considered to be hoon behaviours.
 Establish knowledge about Victorian anti-hoon laws and their fairness or adequacy.
 Identify how young people view hoons compared with older people.
 Identify differences between males and females in their attitudes towards hoon drivers.
 Establish how older people perceive young drivers.
 Seek suggestions about what should be done about the hoon driver problem.
Present Findings
Have each group share and use the results of the survey work to build understanding about hoon driving
and the laws relating to this, by developing a report using graphs, tables and written summaries of
responses.
Publish reports in the school newsletter or make a display for senior students in the school.
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Unit 5: Hoons or harassed
Problem solving: What is being done about hooning?
Preparation
Invite your local Victoria Police Youth Resource Officer to talk about the anti-hoon laws www.police.vic.gov.au/content.asp?Document_ID=7. The class will need access to the Internet to conduct
research.
What to do
Discussion
Remind students that in Victoria, there are several hoon-related offences. The most common ones are:
1. Improper use of a motor vehicle, where the driver has intentionally caused one or more tyres to
lose traction.
2. Exceeding the speed limit by 45 km/h or more (or travelling at over 145 km/h in a 110 km/h zone).
3. Engaging in an unauthorised race or speed trial on a road or spaces near a road that are open to
the public.
4. Repeat incidents of driving whilst disqualified.
Discuss what the students believe the police and the community could do to solve
the ‘hoon’ problem.
Internet Research
Divide the class into small groups and have students research:
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What is being done, including and in addition to the laws on hoon-related offences?
What impact the laws on hoon-related offences have had on the problem to date?
How is the issue being addressed in other states in Australia or overseas?
Present Findings
Groups should present to the class their findings and discuss how effective they believe the initiatives to
solve the ‘hoon’ problem are.
Have students debate the pros and cons of each initiative.
Guest Speaker
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Unit 5: Hoons or harassed
Invite the local Victoria Police Youth Resource Officer to talk about the anti-hoon laws and how successful
these have been in reducing hoon-related behaviour.
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Unit 5: Hoons or harassed
Taking action: Making a difference in the local community
Preparation
Consider inviting a representative of your local community road safety group or the person responsible for
road safety at your local council to speak to the class and discuss ideas. For local community road safety
group contacts:
www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home/SafetyAndRules/AboutRoadSafety/StrategyAndPrograms/VictoriaCommun
ityRoadSafetyPartnershipProgram/RegisteredGroups.htm
What to do
Small Group Work
In small groups research and plan a program or initiative in the local area that could meet the needs of
people who may drive in a manner that is illegal on the roads. Each group should:
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Identify the process that would be required to get the initiative to happen.
Identify people who could help make this happen.
Develop promotional materials describing the program idea.
Share the Ideas
Have each group share their ideas with the rest of the class.
Depending on the ideas for programs the class develop, you could approach your local community road
safety group or local council to ask if a representative would be interested in discussing the program ideas
with the class and explaining any anti-hoon related programs their group is supporting.
A bit more info…
Who could assist with a local program?
 Local businesses providing sponsorship.
 Community organisations.
 Police.
 Interested volunteers from the local community.
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Unit 5: Hoons or harassed
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES
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Use www.howsafeisyourcar.com.au to explore the safety of different makes and models of cars.
Have students identify what is important from a safety viewpoint, compare and contrast this
with what is considered important in a ‘hoon’s car’.
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Have the class collect information about vehicles – either through car or product advertising or
through magazines that come out of the street racing culture. Introduce this activity with a brief
discussion about the reasons why people choose to drive particular vehicles or drive in a
particular way.
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Have each student design a car that reflects who they are or how they would like to be viewed
by others. They should also design a ‘swing tag’ or label that succinctly describes the
components of the vehicle and its selling points. In turn, have students present their final design
and the accompanying swing tag. The class should decide:
o Would the vehicle be considered a ‘hoon’s car’?
o Are the design features related to performance, cosmetic/appearance, safety or all
of these?
EXPLORE OTHER ROAD SAFETY EDUCATION RESOURCES AND PROGRAMS FOR SECONDAY
SCHOOLS ONLINE AT: www.roadsafetyeducation.vic.gov.au
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