It may start with a little trash talk. "My car's faster than yours." Maybe there's a local street racing "culture" with insiders gathering at night on a likely stretch of road to show off their rides. The result is always the same. Two drivers pitted against one another on a two-lane road hitting speeds of 110 - 180 mph or faster. And then something happens. An innocent bystander gets in the way, there's an obstacle in the road, someone's attention is averted for just a second -- the car swerves, rolls, and someone dies. That's the constant threat of street racing.
The law has been slow to catch up with spontaneous or pre-arranged instances of dangerous racing. Florida has statutes targeted at the behavior, but the authorities must prove that there was indeed a competition underway. In other states, prosecution is generally carried out under existing laws for reckless driving or speeding, which makes tracking the real extent of street racing difficult and formulating workable deterrents even harder. It is not unusual, in instances of large gatherings, for cars to be confiscated and spectators to be fined, but unfortunately that seems to just goad the racers into beating the authorities, adding an added element of risk to an already endorphin-charged "sport."
At these more organized events, crowds as large as 300 or 400 can gather, alerted by text messages or posts on covert Internet sites. The high number of spectators raises the potential for death if a car spins out of control and into the crowd. AAA estimates that from 2007 to 2008 street racing deaths in the United States jumped 87 percent with approximately 49 people injured for every one thousand who take part.
This remains the case, in spite of the fact that if prosecuted, drivers can lose their license, face incredibly high insurance rates, jail time (especially in the instance of a collision with a fatality involved), and generate a permanent arrest record that will follow them through life. The appeal of souped up machines and speed for these drivers is simply too strong. As one 22-year-old male wrote online, "Adrenaline, you can't beat it. It's the worst drug; you know, you got some, you want more. You got power; you want more. You never stop." At least not until the night when you're the one who looks away for a second, hits the ditch, and dies.
