It was late one Saturday night on Australia’s Highway 1 going from the Gold Coast to Brisbane. I suppose technically I should say Highway of Hell so apologies to AC/DC. I must say it was most unexpected, as it was late at night and it is a 4 lane (in each direction) motorway.
Rosemarie, The Boss, and I had got tickets to go to see Todd McKenney Song & Dance Spectacular at Twin Towns in Tweed Heads. As we only live about one hour away we decided we would drive. The trip down went well and the show was enjoyable, see The Boss's post for more details. The problems started when we headed for home.
There was some youths mucking around in Coolangatta but we got through without any great trouble. They were only skylarking because they were bored. After all, they are on the Gold Coast with surf, sun, shows, chicks and clubs, so had nothing to do. The real trouble did not start until we got to Nerang on the highway.
This is where the road goes from 2 to 3 and finally to 4 lanes. Suddenly there were hot cars racing through the traffic causing cars to brake to avoid them. Once they had passed I thought that would be the end of it, but it was only the beginning.
Next the traffic was breaking heavily, not quite coming to a stop. Then it started moving off again. This scenario then kept repeating, the dramatic slowing of the traffic, then moving off again. This was interspersed with the hot cars cutting the traffic off. The situation became increasingly stressful as we drove on, as you could not be sure when you would have to dodge a car.
What was causing this? The slowing was caused by four of the hot cars lining up across the highway and slowing to make a large gap in front of them. When the gap was big enough they would drag off down the road. Not content to do this once or twice they did it continually from Nerang to Loganholme where we decided to get off and take an alternative route home.
Were there police about? Yes, but in inadequate numbers to deal with the magnitude of the problem. We saw a motorcycle officer and a police car each stop a hoon but this had no effect. This was because as soon as the hoons crested the next hill another car would fill the gap created by the police stopping one of the hot cars, and the process would start again.
This must be a real problem for professional drivers using the highway making their life more difficult and adding to the cost as it takes longer to travel the highway. It took us half as long again to come home as it did to go down.
Comments on this article:
Mind if I ask what time you were on your way home?? :-? Just curious.
Kel
We left Twin Towns at about 11:00pm and were expecting a pleasant quick trip home. How wrong could we be! :o