A LOGAN taxi driver has made Queensland traffic history by becoming the first professional driver to have a taxi confiscated under anti-hoon legislation.

Acting Gold Coast traffic co-ordinator Inspector Michael Fawcett said police stopped the yellow taxi at Logan on Saturday for speeding.

"After receiving his speeding ticket, the driver did a burn-out in front of police and then took off," he said. "They were unable to stop him at the scene, so they went around to his address and confiscated the yellow taxi."

Some time later, a sheepish man phoned Logan police to explain that he owned the confiscated taxi and the offending driver worked for him and police agreed to return the taxi.

The antics of the male taxi driver were at the top of a number of cases of men behaving badly on our roads over the Queen's Birthday long weekend.

Police clocked a male driver in a white Commodore ute at 204km/h in a 100km/h zone as he headed south on the Pacific Highway at Nerang on Saturday. Police said the speed was too dangerous to begin a chase and they doubted the ute driver even knew of their presence.

Insp Fawcett said police stopped a 22-year-old driver at an random breath-test station at Runaway Bay at 2am on Sunday and discovered he was a disqualified driver.

"They also found that he had a notice to appear (in court) in his pocket that had been issued by police in Brisbane at 1.20am after they had stopped him and also discovered he was a disqualified driver, so he ended up with two notices in the space of 40 minutes," said Insp Fawcett.

He said a young P-plate driver was picked up after a radar detected him travelling at 179km/h in a 100km/h zone on the M1 at Tanah Merah at 8.35pm on Saturday.

"He had a blood alcohol reading of 0.082, when of course it should have been zero for a probationary driver," he said.

The driver told police he had 'a few beers' at party, had driven some party-goers home and was heading back to the party when he was stopped.

Amazingly, when told of his speed, the driver said he would have to get his speedo checked as he thought he was doing 185km/h.

A 20-year-old male driver, also on a P-plates, was recorded at 136km/h in a 110km/h zone on the M1 at Ormeau on Saturday.

He failed to stop and then reached a top speed of 194km/h in his Falcon before he finally pulled over.

"And a 22-year old male who turned out to be a repeat unlicensed offender was booked doing 145km/h in a 100km/h zone on the Logan Motorway on Saturday," said Insp Fawcett.

To compound the long weekend road madness, police were involved in a brief chase yesterday afternoon with a driver described as 'grubby and about 35' in a 2000 gold Commodore.

At one stage he drove the wrong way on busy Hooker Boulevard at Broadbeach, then he went through three consecutive red lights before his speed was recorded at 120km/h while heading north in the bus lane of the Gold Coast Highway at 3.10pm. The chase was aborted.

Insp Fawcett said Gold Coast police had conducted 6600 random breath-tests up to yesterday morning, with 47 drink-drivers detected during the long weekend blitz. There were 481 drivers booked for speeding, 29 for not wearing seat belts and, overall, there were 1087 traffic offences.

The traffic operation ended at midnight yesterday.

Meanwhile, the traffic flow north at the close of the Queen's Birthday long weekend was relatively uncongested, despite the thousands who had gone away for the weekend.

There was some congestion at Tugun and on the Sundale Bridge but the Traffic Management Centre reported no major delays.

"It's been all good, no dramas or delays," said a spokesman from the Traffic Management Centre.

He said the long weekend's major delays had occurred at Tugun on Friday and Sunday, due to people heading to the Wintersun festival.

http://www.gcbulletin.com.au/article/2007/06/12/5694_news.html