Chelsea’s plea to speeding hoons

By Danny Buttler
GARDENIA Street’s road warrior has found support for his speed hump campaign.
Michael Rolfe, who has been campaigning for traffic control devices in his street for decades, has been joined by local girl Chelsea Penglase.
The Pakenham eight-year-old this week showed her displeasure with speeding motorists by creating her own protest sign which simply said ‘Slow Down’.
The junior and senior residents of the street want action taken on lead-footed motorists who use the straight stretch of road as a “speedway”.
Chelsea said she is scared when she and a friend go riding their bikes.
“Because my friend and I go riding on the road, we could get run over,” she said.
Chelsea said her home-made sign was a message for those who don’t care about the speed limit.
“I’d just like to tell them to slow down and then we won’t get hurt,” she said.
Mr Rolfe said a speed limit of 50 kilometres per hour has done nothing to reduce hooning by a handful of repeat offenders.
In fact, a recent Gazette article highlighting the hoon problem has just made things worse, with some drivers increasing their speeds in recent weeks.
“They are just dropkicks,” he said.
“They are annoyed at me, if they can do 300 km/h they will do it.”
Mr Rolfe wants Cardinia Shire Council to install speed humps, but says his years of campaigning have proved fruitless.
“If someone is killed in this street I will name all the people I have spoken to from the shire and also the councillors,” he said.
“It’s a speedway this road, and not just for cars, but for trucks as well.”
Mr Rolfe described little Chelsea’s protest as a great example of how speeding affects people’s lives.
“She lives right opposite me and her mum has three kids,” he said.
“She just feels it is too dangerous where she lives.”
Mr Rolfe said he has been living at his current address for more than 40 years and has been agitating for traffic control devices since the late 1970s.