Drivers caught hooning on the same Queensland beach where a young tourist died in a 4WD crash on Sunday have been described as leaving “their common sense on the road”.
7NEWS has been supplied with a cache of footage showing drivers doing doughnuts and fishtails, as well as speeding, on Teewah Beach on the Sunshine Coast, where the tourist was killed on Sunday.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Teewah Beach being torn up by hoons.
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The person who filmed the footage, mostly using a drone, did not want to be identified but expressed concern about driving behaviour on the beach in the lead-up to the crash.
While he did not film the incident that claimed the life of a French tourist in his 20s, who was killed instantly when his rented 4WD rolled several times, he filmed multiple instances of hooning activity.
A forensic crash investigator at the scene of Sunday’s crash told 7NEWS it’s believed the 4WD was not being driven “to the conditions of the beach”.
Levi Anderson, a road safety researcher, said such behaviour “tends to skew towards younger males”.
“It’s like they leave their common sense on the road,” said Anderson, who works for the University of the Sunshine Coast and the Motor Accident Insurance Commission.
“We know that among the motivating factors is the presence of their peers and what their peers think of them.”
Anderson said another factor was the perception that they were more likely to “get away with (hooning) compared to the road environment”.
“Police can’t be as present on the beach, so there is lower enforcement,” he added.
Anderson said police and wildlife rangers, who have the power to issue fines for driving offences on beaches, did patrol such areas.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Chris Stream vowed to increase police activity on Teewah Beach and other beaches popular with 4WD enthusiasts during the holiday season.
“Expect to see us anywhere, anytime,” Stream said.
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