Street Racing Unstoppable?

I am inclined to agree with Gary Faules because he makes very strong points with regards to what the costs are for friends and family of accident victims. I also agree with only a single point of Dusty’s arguement… not enough is done to enforce/stop drunk driving. That is where our agreement ends. Traffic penalties in the states are not nearly harsh enough given the severity of the potential for injury and loss of life. There SHOULD be a zero tolerance policy in effect for drunk driving, or driving under the influence of ANY substance/condition that impairs judgement or reaction time.
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That aside, mentioning drunk drivers only goes farther to illustrate the dangers of street racing because it represents one of the biggest variables on the road. You never know when or where you will come across an impaired driver. You never know when or where someone’s car is going to break down, or when something may fall off an unsecured load of a truck… this list could go on forever.
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As for the point that police enforcement is so precious that it should be focused on other things? Like what? Give us a for instance on that one because I just don’t understand what you’re getting at. Its kind of like saying let’s forget about the rapists because there are so many murderers out and about, don’t you think?

It’s a sad day that some can’t see with their heart instead of with their egos.

Would you not be insulted if your nephew was killed and someone said, “I fail to see why this is such a big deal.”?

You comment that says “The vast majority of deaths or injuries in street racing incidents affect only those participating.” shows your lack of compassion among other qualities. How do you suppose the death of a young adult affects those in his family or the families of others that were injured not to mention what it does to young peoples insurance rates. Two years ago when we were heading north on I-5 there were some kids racing another car on the freeway and they lost control and slid sideways into a guardrail which went all the way thru the rear seat killing two young girls and almost the third. My son in law tried everything he could to help save one of them while giving CPR. He is still going to therapy. Based on your remark he should not have been affected. You;’re mistaken.

How in the world can you say little is done about drunk driving?

If people find my comments offensive with regards to this topic then they have served their purpose. The truth hurts don’t it?

No, it is not a bad comparison. The vast majority of deaths or injuries in street racing incidents affect only those participating. Drunk drivers kill many more innocent people every year, yet little is done about it.
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Illegal street racing is not justified, but it is not a good place to spend large quantities of limited police budgets on.
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Perhaps instead of insulting other commentors, you should learn to argue yourself.

I fail to see why this is such a big deal. Many, many more people are killed every year by drunk driving, yet nothing much is ever done about it.
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And the vast majority of “street racing” incidents usually involve a bunch of kids parked in a parking lot bragging about the turbo kit they’ll never actually get.

Being somewhat close to the MD incident… They are blowing these things out of proportion. Essentially the people killed were standing around in crowds on the road, a highway with 55+ speeds on it mind you, and the driver of the killer car was not even involved in the race in any level. They were heading somewhere else and ran through a crowd of people. They didn’t see because there was a cloud of smoke left from the race. So i guess street racing smoke kills people. Moral of the story… slow down when you can’t see where you are going… I guess they had somewhere better to be in a hurry.

Forgot to add:

I know that Bullitt doesn’t glorify street racing, but it did glorify driving fast and recklessly on public roads…

The nearest track to my is about a half an hour away. I think it cost $20 for a couple runs, and it is only on a couple of night, I have never been there. But being in high school, I bought my own car. I bought all of the modificaitons on it, I made everything my own, I have earned respect just throught my work at school and I have respect for my car, because I HAD TO WORK FOR IT. Other people in my school, the majority of them, their PARENTS bought them their cars, brand new! High Horsepower cars, that they do not know how to handle. And the ones who have those cars with modifications on them their PARENTS bought them for them. So it is technically their parents car. “if you didn’t buy the parts for your car, its technically not yours.” I agree with that, and it is leading to more “street racing” accidents involving TWO or more cars, NOT ONE. Because they do not know how to handle a vehicle of that caliber.

Its mostly the parents fault for buying them a high end car, and the teenager does not have respect for it, because they never touched it, they DID NOT WORK FOR IT.

I still find that the ones that end up getting hurt or causing the accidents are the ones who aren’t racing. It seems to me that street racers ( if they can so be called) that have knowledge and know-how to control their vehicle are less likely to cause fatalies or injuries. I myself have been racing since i was 16 and have not once seen an accident cause by racing. I’ve seen close calls done by idiotic people that I didn’t know who thought they “knew” how to drive. But most accidents that i have read about occured when a innocent person crosses paths with racers or fails to keep control of their own vehicle. Having more race tracks won’t really detour racers from hitting the streets i mean an open track once a night every few weekends isn’t going to do anything to curve the problem. The track around in my area has grudge matches once a month and thats not going to satisfy me as to there is no thrill involved, and the wait in lines is just as long as it is to shit talk in a parking lot. And all this talk about street racing causing accidents, maybe we should do a comparison to how many people die in drunk driving incidents, or police chases. The news only glamorises the term ” street racer/ street racing”, a lot more than the big screen does. I keep reading google news on how someone was hurt in a street racing accident and when you get almost through the article you find that there was only one car involved and that the person wasn’t really racing anyone at all. Besides if we keep coming up with the stupid laws of impounding a persons vehicle for speeding/wreckless driving the U.S. is going to end up just like Canada and be in a shit hole where everyone who is caught doing 5 over is subject to a $10,000 fine, the title of being a “street racer”, and having their car impounded for little to no reason at all, I’ve noticed California is very close to that shit hole of a law and the title MAD WITH POWER.

in south France, the government opened a free race track, circuit carol, street racer went circuit racing for free. it worked too.

The only problem I can see is that if the driver decided to race anyway (knowing full well that they could lose their car) I’d be willing to bet that police chases would skyrocket. I mean I cant honestly tell you what I would do if I were faced with losing my car, I’d hope that I wouldn’t even be in that situation to begin with.

i agree with “gtwildfire” all we need is more places to let it loose. the closest 1/4 mile to me is about an hour drive away.

and from a teen view im like i know my dad did it with some good ol muscle so why do i have to miss out?
i would gladly go to a track and get some real times but its not as shall i say convient..

There’s only ONE answer. Give racers a place to race. Failure to do so will and does invariably result in them racing on the street.
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This problem simply won’t go away with ridiculous fines or whatever… racers are already adept to taking risks, getting caught is just one more.
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Racing may have risks, but at least it’s not like joining a gang, or becoming a I.V. drug user, or becoming a politician.

Like Stewart mentioned many of us acted like fools during our teenage years but even that excuse does not change the fact that there is a HUGE amount of street racing going on these days and I would even go as far as to say a lot more of it than any statistics can prove.

Part of the problem is many of today’s young people do not have to work in order to pay for their own transportation and this is partially responsible for young people taking owning and responsible driving for granted. That combined with the fact that many of today’s popular cars are easily souped up at a fraction of the cost of what it took many of us back in “the day”.

With no disrespect, another reason street racing is so popular is how it is glorified by so many magazines, blogs and video like YouTube. It’s no wonder why young people feel the need to take part… everyone’s doing it. Personally it saddens me to see so much of it going on and blatantly promoting when in fact it would be so easy to feature articles which attempt to teach young adults how to be more responsible on public roads. I lost my nephew two years ago and he was killed when he lost control and hit a large tree at speeds in excess of 100 mph. The engine ended up in his lap and shoved him out through the drivers door.

I remember standing before a judge when I was 17 years old as my mother sat behind me and she was mad as hell at me. I didn’t know what was going to be worse… what ever the judge dealt out of what she was going to do to me when we got home. When the judge asked me how I plead I began telling the biggest bunch of BS I could come up with about how everyone else does it. The judge sat patiently as he listened to me and when I was done he started in. He said, “Ya know, you may be surprised to learn this but you would not believe how many times I have heard that story.” Then the judge told me… “You may be surprised to hear a judge tell you what I am going to say but here goes. I am sure that your parents have told you many times how responsible they had to be when they were your age but the truth is you have so much more to be responsible for than your mother and father ever had. Back in their day cars were not as fast as they are these days. There was very little traffic as compared to today and insurance was inexpensive. The worst that could happen was they could run off the road and knock someone’s mail box off the post. All they had to do was stop and put it back or go to the farmer’s house and offer to pay for it. But today with the speeds cars can go and all the traffic whenever you make a mistake lives could very possibly be lost.”

I would like to see blogs and car clubs try to make a difference by setting an example. There is a lot of places to race cars and the BS about there is no track close to where I live doesn’t cut it with me. If a man buys a boat and there is no lake nearby should he race it on the street? That’s makes about as much sense. What does impress me is those who work for their own car… take care of it… and drive responsibly. Laws will not stop street racing. Only rational decisions made by those who drive them can do that.

I know it’s not the ultimate answer…
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But it doesn’t help that race tracks keep closing, and there is less access to tracks.
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That said, I street raced all the time as a teenager, and honestly can’t believe that I was so stupid, and didn’t kill myself or an innocent person(s).
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I had multiple tracks available, but nothing within 50 miles, so…
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We took it to the streets…