Boy racers allegedly punch local resident in New Year's Eve altercation
Evan Still didn’t envisage bringing in the new year with three broken teeth and his jaw broken in two places.
His sore head on Saturday morning was not from revelry, but an alleged coward punch following a confrontation with boy racers less than an hour before midnight on Friday.
Tensions between Still, his neighbours at Lower Hutt’s Seaview Marina, and hoons who use the nearby industrial area to race and do burnouts have been bubbling away for months. He said gatherings of up to 100 cars are almost a weekly occurrence – police were pelted with bottles while responding to a gathering of more than 200 vehicles in the area in September.
Still said he was set upon as he walked away from the group who had been tearing up the streets near his live-aboard berth at Seaview Marina in Lower Hutt. He estimated about 50 cars were at the gathering.
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“They’re cowards – I had my back to whoever hit me,” Still said.
“Me and a mate went down to tell them to p... off. They didn’t like being told to f... off – when I turned around they sucker punched me from behind.
“Call it a sixth sense or whatever – I had a feeling something was up. I turned my head just before they hit me, and they caught me in the side [of the head] instead of the back of the head which I know could have been fatal.”
He was punched in the face a second time for his troubles as he left. “I’ve got a hell of a headache this morning,” he said on Saturday.
The men went to confront the group after becoming fed up waiting for police, who they had called about 11pm. Still said it was the third boy-racer gathering in the area in a week.
Police records show they were alerted to an assault in the area about 11.30pm. A police spokeswoman said later reports of boy-racer activity were made about 11.50pm.
About 15 to 20 cars blocked off the nearby Hutt Park Rd, she said.
Still previously told Stuff the situation was reaching a head in Seaview and in nearby Gracefield with noise and smoke from the gatherings disturbing marina residents late at night and into the early hours of the morning.
“It’s a residential area – there are 150 of us at the marina and others on the hill. The noise and smoke permeates homes and gets into the boats.”
He said it was a matter of time before a driver or spectator was hurt or killed, and said the public was also at risk as racers often turned their headlights off.
Still said constant reports of anti-social behaviour over the years to police and Hutt City Council had come to nothing. The alleged assault should give authorities impetus to find a solution as the racers had crossed the line from a nuisance to being thugs, he said.
Problems with hoons leaving a mess of shredded tyres, broken car parts and rubbish on the road in the industrial zone have led the Seaview Business Association to consider installing security cameras for the area.