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People living in the Havre des Pas area fear it is becoming a new hotspot for dangerous drivers who want to use the islands' roads as a racetrack – with some reportedly reaching speeds of up to 80mph.
Issues with motorists driving in convoy at excessive speeds late at night has been a frequent complaint from islanders living in St John, St Ouen, St Mary, St Martin and Trinity.
Last year, Police launched a specific initiative to clamp down on such car 'enthusiasts' and the potential dangerous modifications to their vehicles.
It came a year after a driver was jailed for six months for aiding and abetting dangerous driving after cars were filmed speeding at more than 80mph through the back lanes of St Peter and St Mary – and a decade after the potentially fatal consequences of drag racing were made clear following the tragic death of a 22-year-old man.
But it seems that the dangerous trend is continuing – and is now impacting those living in the Havre des Pas area too.
So concerned are residents that the apparent "spate of drag racing" was an agenda item at a recent meeting of the Havre des Pas Improvement Group.
The racing, which predominantly takes place "late on weekends", was reported to involve cars going at between 70 and 80mph.
St Helier Constable and Assistant Infrastructure Minister Simon Crowcroft told Express he was "not surprised" by the reports.
Pictured: Assistant Infrastructure Minister Simon Crowcroft said he was "not surprised" by the reports of speeding raised at the meeting.
He said: "This particular group of motorists think they can get up to a certain speed. We've all heard them – people who are basically using the roads as a racetrack."
Constable Crowcroft added: "There's no doubt that it's a frequent complaint across the island – not just in town."
St Helier's Chef de Police Danny Scaife said that the honorary force were "monitor[ing] speeding down there as and when we can."
However, he noted that reports of so-called "boy racers" could sometimes be hard to verify depending on when the incident took place and if officers were in the area at the time. "I know it's an ongoing issue," he added.
One of the key issues is that the area does not have speed cameras or other monitors capable of recording speeds.
"It was confirmed that the police CCTV cameras do not pick up speeding issues and that the only data available is from the smiley face monitors," Havre des Pas Improvement Group meeting minutes noted.
"Havre des Pas and Green Street were both identified as areas that could benefit from these monitors."
Pictured: Havre des Pas was identified as an area that could benefit from more speeding monitors.
In the meantime, residents are being requested to feed reports of incidents to their community police officer via email.
Further speeding checks in the area may also be planned.
Last year's crackdown on dangerous drivers saw covert patrols and speed checks were used to target drivers meeting for races through country roads and lanes.
The initiative was run under the banner of Operation Canvas, launched after the first covid lockdown in response to a dramatic increase in anti-social driving, and which resulted in dozens of motorists being prosecuted for a range of offences.
In the four weeks after the launch in June 2020, 53 people were caught speeding and 26 unroadworthy vehicles were impounded.
Pictured: Operation Canvas was launched during the pandemic in response to people using lockdown as an excuse to speed.
However, the island's issues with speeding stretch back for many years.
In 2013, a 22-year-old man was killed in an illegal high-speed drag race on Victoria Avenue.
Vitor Dinarte Fernandes lost control of his car, which flew across the central reservation and hit an oncoming vehicle.
He died of a severe head injury after racing at speeds of up to 78 mph with friends.
One of the friends, Jose Silva, was jailed for three years for causing death by dangerous driving.
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