Nelson woman fed up with boy racers wins six-year battle against local petrolheads

A Nelson woman who'd had enough of boy racers tearing up and down her quiet street spent six years making a stand against local petrolheads - and won.

Andrea Warn lives on what she described as a "drag strip", and she and her neighbours have endured numerous crashes, boy racers, drifting, speeding, and cars travelling down the centreline.

Warn estimated there had been 25 crashes down the street in recent years. 

But becoming a boy racer catcher wasn't her intention.

"I had a council roading engineer come and have a look at the street. He suggested we create a visual disturbance for when people are coming around the corner," Warn told The Project

"So we painted our kerb white and we put some plantings in the form of tussock grass and flax, and then we put some rocks around it to make it look pretty."

This was successful, and she had most recently caught a Nissan Skyline who tore around the street in the evening.

"We had just had a light shower of rain and he completely lost it on the corner doing his drift and he went backwards over the plantings. It removed half his bumper and he limped off down the street," she said.

But it wasn't until a pizza deliverer rolled his car last January that they got some traction to install speed bumps, which Warn said has changed their lives "immensely".

"This is the first summer we've been able to sleep at night with our windows open without the revving engines, the skids, and the near-misses and car crashes."

Her advice for others who want to get rid of boy racers on their streets is to not give up and work with your council, community, and neighbours.

"You can do it with plantings and removable planter boxes and things like that to limit the impact of speed on your street."

Watch the video above.