ROCK-throwing teens are primed to kill unless a night curfew is enforced to keep them off the streets, says the victim of a highway attack.

And police have warned louts could face time behind bars for assault or manslaughter if their missiles injure or kill.

A shaken Brian McLean contacted The Cairns Post to make an impassioned plea for the crackdown on teens after copping a fist-sized rock through his windshield at the weekend.

The rock blindsided Mr McLean as he drove home along the Bruce Highway, between Forest Gardens and The Rock tavern, at 4am on Saturday.

"There was this enormous bang," said Mr McLean, a professional driver of 46 years.

"I put my foot down on the brake, I went up sideways on the road. I pulled up and there was this massive bullseye on the windscreen.

"It was a massive stone, it would've had to have been as big as your fist.

"A less experienced driver could've been killed."

Mr McLean warned: "Someone's going to die because of this stupidity.

"This is disaster waiting to happen."

Mr McLean believes the only answer is to keep youths off the streets at night.

"They're bloody oxygen thieves these kids," he said.

"I do firmly believe in a curfew.

"If you're under 16, you’re under lock, off the street after nine o'clock, or 10 o'clock, unless you're with a parent or guardian."

Youths wandering the streets should be taken to the watchhouse overnight.

"The next morning the parents have to come and get them. I don't think the parents know where they are. Maybe this'd wake them up."

Mr McLean's warning follows news in January that rock-throwers had turned Cairns bus routes into a "war zone".

Rocks launched at Smithfield and Mooroobool last year terrified motorists, leaving them with smashed windows and shattered nerves.

And in New South Wales, a rock thrown from an overpass cracked open beauty therapist Nicole Miller's skull, leaving the 26-year-old with permanent physical and psychological injuries.

Acting traffic Insp Preben Farbaek warned offenders faced assault or manslaughter charges if missiles caused death or injury.

"We're talking jail terms," he said.

"Throwing a rock through the windscreen of a car has killed people in the past, and caused serious injury.

"It's extremely hazardous."

And he called for parents to exercise supervision and responsibility.

"We've got to ask the parents to take responsibility and know where their children are, that their children are gainfully involved in activities and that they're educated to know throwing rocks is dangerous and not the done thing."

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