Street Racing Kills!!

I saw this story on the news in Naples, Fla. over the weekend.

Imagine you are one of the soon to be deceased stepping out into the road to watch the cars go, and a Crown Vic comes up behind you at 60 something.

Sounds like that is what happened.

Just horrible.

 

If they had a lookout my guess is they'd be looking for cops not a twenty year old coming home.

Aparently the street racing had little to do with the accident. You stand in the middle of the highway at two in the morning with your six facing on coming trafic you are likely to get run over. Sounds like the big crime was not street racing but a major case of Jaywalking. Mom taught me at a young age to look both ways before crossing the street. I love these idiots that think becuase they have the right of way they can step in front of a moving car. Call me silly but I believe the chrome bumper will always win over the pedestrian in a court of life, you can try to convince me that I have the right of way but I'm not stepping off the curb until after the car is past.

Yeh, I know as a driver I'm supposed to keep my eyes on the road but occasionally I have to blink or look at the speedo or glance in the rear view mirror.

 

Has there been any word as to if the driver of the crown vic had drugs or alcohol in his system?

 

I guess i just don't get why they would be doing this on a major highway. I always thought street racers tried to stay away from major roads and the attention that it would bring. A lot of times they go into industrial parks, to keep more of a low profile. Where rt 70 ends in a park n ride in Baltimore County is also a popular street racing spot..or it was many years ago anyway.

 

Todays Washinton Post quoted a relative of the driver who said no drugs or alcohol but it usually takes a couple weeks for the toxicology reports from the bloodwork. Someone that lives in the area could correct me but I think the area is still rural enough that the roads are pretty quiet at 2AM. I can only imagine what the driver must be going through. Imagine yourself driving late at night and you pass the lookouts and glance in your rearview mirror as you pass them wondering what they are doing and when you look in front of you there are a bunch of people standing in front of you in the middle of a dark highway. Maybe there were a bunch of cars parked off in the grass and the reflectors caught your attention long enough to distract you as well as the tail lights of the cars that were racing off in the distance? Would you notice the people standing in front of you with thier backs turned so there would be no retinas or teeth or beltbuckles to reflect the headlights back. The Post said the police were not really concerned with finding the racers since they were not involved with the accident nor where they witness to anything since they would not have been close enough to see anything going on behind them. I think they are more concerned with finding witnesses and trying to figure out if the driver was speeding or driving without lights.

 

The irony here is that Maryland International Raceway (where Pinks ran a couple of episodes) is less than a half hour from where this incident occured. The racers and the spectators had options that they chose not to take. It isnt like they live a days drive from a place to legally race.

 

From what has been reported so far, I can't really blaim the driver for this. Only way he really shares any blaim is if he had his lights off. On that road at 2am even if he was going 90mph it would be a reasonable speed for the road and what you might expect.

 

IMHO... Standing in the street kills!!!

 

Suicide by car

 

You have a good point there.

Unfortunately most people will say the root cause of the problem is the street racing.
I heard on the radio that the only practical solution is NOT:
- promoting track racing instead of street racing,
- driver & spectator education,
- more police presence,
- speed bumps,
- etc.
But rather passing new state laws FOR:
- many more speed cameras (pretty much on every open road in MD, since they pretty much pay for themselves), and
- making it a crime to be a spectator at a drag race.

 

yeah, i really don't get this whole thing. i mean if you stand on a dark highway, specially with alot of smoke around, you pretty much get what's coming to you. How are you gonna prevent stupid people from standing in the street. Reminds me of all the mexicans that get mowed down in takoma park. Hey, get outa the road and everything will be fine.

 

I'm still not buying the story that the police couldn't do anything about this. Given all the bs busts that happen daily, from bagging kids with pot to not having a front license plate to cracking down on people not wearing seat belts, I just don't see how in over 20 years, somebody didn't have the balls to shut this down.

In fact, I'm thinking that by not even trying, the police were implicitly condoning street racing. While it may appear to be hypocritical, because I had my fun in my younger days, I consider street racing to be one of the top safety hazards right after drinking and cell phones.

Dale

 

Dale,

Some cities have task force that do just want you are thinking of. San Jose is one of them. A good friend is a SJPD and when he was younger looking (5-6 years ago)they put him in a Drug car (claimed from a drug bust) and sent him out. He go to know all the racers and worked the events for a couple months before any sort of big bust happened. And once it did, guess what, they moved onto a different part of the city. And continued to race.

People who want to break the laws will. People who want to drag race at 3am on some road will.

What if after stoping this war on drag racing, they try to stop the war on drugs....sounds like a easy, fool proof plan!

 

why is that? certainly not wearing a seatbelt, speeding and driving while drowsy, among many other things, cause more damage than street racing. in fact these deaths can't really be blamed on street racing. They can be blamed on people standing in a highway. Before anybody gets on me, i don't street race.

 

Toogie,
I'm not surprised at the rationale they use to get what they want.$$$$

 

I understand that you can't stop people from being idiots. However, turning a blind eye for 20 years just encourages this behavior to get even bigger until, well, we know what eventually happens. Ask someone who lived in Manhattan during the 80s and who lives there now what they think about NOT ignoring the small stuff.

Because my mother, wife, son, and daughter all drive on public roads. If we ignore these morons, they just keep getting worse and worse until they kill somebody. Life is not without risks. But we don't need to take stupid risks, do we?

Dale

PS I include in this group the idiots who have posted on F-Chat in past bragging about running at race speeds on public roads.

 

this is basically a terrible freak accident , the story is unusual so it is a topic of conversation . what about people who run red lights everyday. they kill far more than eight . are we going to adopt a new legislation everytime something like this happens? street racing has been going on since cars were invented..its sad it had to happen and the police should be aware of it and enforce it .

 

tell your mom to stay off rt 66 in va then.
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You better let off the pedal. You're almost out of gas!

 

I'll make sure that she has her cell handy.

Dale

 

I would disagree that the police did not try to stop this. In MD competing in a speed event on the roads is a 12 point offense and automatic revoking of license. What the police did say is it is difficult to stop. Plus in this case it seems like a bunch of idiots where standing in the middle of the road in the middle of the night. The racing had little to do with the accident. The same accident would have happened if they were watching two idiots fighting in the street etc. I for one don't see this as such a major hazard that would justify taking police away from doing something else that may save many more lives. I'm not saying it isn't wrong but I want the most bang for my buck. With the increase in gang activity in the metro area and violent crimes I don't want to pay cops to sit out in the sticks somewhere waiting for the slim chance there might be a drag race and the drivers are too stupid to canvas the area first to see if the cops are sitting there waiting.

 

Well, we finally have red light cameras which are putting a dent in this stupid, stupid crime. (How can anybody's time be so precious that they feel that they have the right to risk killing a member of my family?

And, yes, I guarantee you that your politicians will attempt to pass new laws over this. This effects all of us.

In Texas, street racing is a Class C misdemeanor. We have deputy dogs who believe that going over 100 mph is street racing. I have seen Ferrari drivers handcuffed and their cars towed for going over the ton.

Look, cars today are powerful to begin with. When you add nitrous and stupidity, what do you think that you're going to get?

Dale

 

It appears now that the driver was driving on a suspended license. So if he had stayed home that night, instead of driving, maybe the next car down the road would have been coming a few minutes later and the folks would be alive today. This guy now has to share some of the blaim with the spectators.