stop street racingplease post your stories here for why you quit or why you think it's okay to do it.
I quit after a trip to the hospital. I wasn't even running my car. (I doubt my 1.6 L Nissan could do much)
I was riding with my friend in a '89 GMC something or other truck.
We were racing my other frien...
stop street racingplease post your stories here for why you quit or why you think it's okay to do it.
I quit after a trip to the hospital. I wasn't even running my car. (I doubt my 1.6 L Nissan could do much)
I was riding with my friend in a '89 GMC something or other truck.
We were racing my other friend's Camero.
It was about 1:30 am on a backroad with about 2 miles of straight away. We'd camp the start and finish so that we could use both lanes.
It was the first race of the night.
The camero pulled out ahead, but when we hit second it was over.
We pulled ahead and kept gaining ground.
About 2 seconds before he hit third a deer jumped out.
We hit it at about 110.
I woke up in the hospital.
In the end I was glad it was us and not the Camero.
He was okay and I was just a little banged up, no broken bones. Just a hard hit to my head.
They stitched me up and gave me some pills.
Please don't let your friends tell you that it's safe. I thought we'd be okay with the start and finish blocked off. I thought we were safe from cops and oncoming traffic. Never thought about a damn deer. If it was the camero and not the truck someone would be dead.
The trip to the hospital cost me over 1000 dollars. It would have cost $135 for all of us to go to the track.
The truck wasn't too bad off and somehow the engine was spared. I don't know how much repairs cost but I'm sure it wasn't cheap either. And the the court costs. And the community service. Yeah, shitloads of fun.
Theres a small airport near my house for bush planes and small jets but its never been rented out to an auto event. Would be badass though.
My dad and my brother are both real big into racing, NASCAR and all that stuff. I'm not too big into it but I guess it's in my blood too. I can control myself on the road, but my brother and I have decided that after he breaks the engine in on his car we are taking both of ours to a drag strip not too far from here to see which fairs better.
btw, we call the guys to make sure there are no planes planning on taking off the hours we race on the airstrip.
EDIT:
And while there's a special place in hell reserved for those rice-burner driving twats and losers with overly-compensating pickup trucks. Squealing the tires off the line is fun, even though it loudly advertises that you cannot control your car, and that your a cock.
Post edited 1/19/10 12:56AM
For 3 years I was a Fire Investigator for the Clackamas County Fire Department. During that time I responded to 3 different incidents involving street racing. Two of these were fairly simple crashes, where the drivers were going to jail and all I had to do was the crash reconstruction. One of these, however, was very, very bad,
Four cars were street racing down our east-side Interstate (I-205) near the town of Gladstone. This was at about 2am, the roads are fairly clear except for truck traffic. As these morons came around the corner between Hwy 99E and Hwy 213, the two lead cars broadsided each other (if it was intentional or accidental we'll never know) causing them to both spin out in opposite directions at about 110.
The car on the inside hit the center divider, was flipped over it, and landed in the path of an 18-wheeler, which completely ran over the car, and itself rolled over. The car on the outside blasted through the guard rail and went off a 50 foot embankment, landing on a set of train tracks, which had the effect of cutting the car in half (impact separated the frame and body, kind of like breaking a pencil over your finger)
The two cars behind slammed on their brakes, but then left the scene. Both occupants of the inside vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene, a 22-year old male and a 19-year old female. The driver of the outside vehicle was taken to OHSU (our big trauma center) but did not make it through the next day due to his internal injuries. The driver of the 18-wheeler was also taken to OHSU, where he underwent 6 hours of surgery. He survived, but was very badly injured.
So I don't care if you enjoy it, I don't care if you think you're good at it. Street racing, in my mind, is just like using meth. Stupid as fuck, and someone is going to get hurt. You are NOT trained to drive at those speeds, your car is NOT designed to handle them in the first place, the streets themselves are not designed for that, and you are putting other people in danger. It's just plain fucking stupid.
That's a horrible story, but I have to point out that you ASSUME people aren't trained and ASSUME people's cars can't handle it. Now I'm not saying it's right to street race but police tend to make these assumptions often. I have had advanced driver training, over 40 hours of track experience and Toyota Soarer with extensive handling mods. Yet I have been told by police that I am evil and putting lives at risk by simply overtaking a Semi-Trailer (18 wheeler) at 140k's an hour. Police tend to have this thought in their head that they are special that no one else can handle driving fast and it annoys the shit out of me, I have been pulled over for taking a corner faster then the Police thought I could handle (recommended speed 60ks I took it at 90k's legal speed limit is 100ks) I had done nothing wrong but was given a ticket for reckless driving. I took it to court and won, the judge called it "ignorant on the part of the police officers" Police need to learn that they don't know everything and maybe they would get the respect they ASSUME they deserve. Instead of putting money and effort into catching real criminals they put money and effort into harassing people who aren't harming anybody (not talking about people driving at excessive speed I am talking about harmless runs up to the speed limit, I am talking about having fun on a mountain road, I am talking about people going about their day normally going slightly over the speed limit being given ridiculous tickets) 3% of crashes are caused by speed 3 FUCKING percent there are bigger problems on our roads but police neglect that and focus on racing and speeding because it's an easy scapegoat and it's easy money. I don't want to hear "you complain about cops until you need one" My friend got bashed half to death where were the police? Probably pulling over someone going 5ks over the speed limit. They never even tried to find the people who did it. Someone stole my secondary car and not only did the police not find it, they sent me a speeding ticket for it dated 2 weeks after it was stolen.
Thanks for pointing out that everyone who drives in a way that you think is unsafe for you does not make it unsafe. Besides, speed doesn't kill, lest the Autobahn wouldn't exist. Good drivers are good drivers, bad drivers are bad drivers.
Another alternative would be to attend a track day or drivers education (DE or HPDE) event. They're legal, safe, and well worth the money.
I wonder if street racers realize, that all of the general common sense/rules of the road require NORMAL drivers to be cautious and very careful, much less if they're doubling the speed limit.
Example, a car takes 150 feet to stop from 60-0... 150 feet appears to be a pretty long distance, but it takes about 2 or less seconds to cover that 150 feet. Now what if you're going 110? Aside from the fact that you're going to more than double your stopping distance (if your stock brakes don't fail stopping hard at 110), but good luck reacting quick enough to stop in time even if your car *could* do it.
It's pretty safe to say that if you're doing over 80 on a public road (highways included) you've lost control of your vehicle, whether you've got traction or not... If you have an emergency situation above 80, where you need to stop very quickly or turn to avoid someone/something, chances are you're going to hurt/kill someone or yourself. Besides, even if public roads were all deserted, most of them are, generally speaking, in mediocre shape, bouncing your car all around at high speed and leaving you pretty much unable to quickly turn/change lanes/brake without losing control.
So, think of this:
A) You get in an accident on a public street. You total your vehicle and break both legs. You have to wait for emergency services to arrive, to find you trapped in your vehicle and weeping over your dead, beautiful, straight-A daughter, only 14 years old. You injure a family who was on the way home from dinner. You have to pay out a huge amount your savings for towing, ambulance, insurance deductibles (and hospital bills if not covered) and possibly for a lawsuit.
B) You get in an accident on a track. Damage is minor, because the track/walls are designed to help absorb the shock of being struck by a vehicle. Your pride is hurt because you lost the race. Ambulance shows up in 10 seconds, to ensure you're safe and escort you off the track with no problem. You maybe pay $200 to fix up your fender. (Alternate ending - You get to strip to your underwear and run around screaming for Tom Cruise to put the fire out, maybe to get kicked off the track, lol)
Which would you prefer?
Post edited 5/24/11 9:02PM
Within reason, there is little wrong with speeding a few miles over the limit. Our speed limits were put in place in a time when cars weighed twice as much and took twice as long to stop, but just because our cars have improved, it does not mean we should take it as an opportunity to drive faster, rather we should take note that it is simply to help us stop quicker. The road is not your personal race track and it's not there for your entertainment. It is there to go from point A to point B in both a safe and relatively timely manner.
Of course we all gun it when the light turns green sometimes, and sure a lot of people are guilty of going a little too fast on the freeway. Those people are usually the kind of people who think they are better than the average driver, but when everyone around you is half-retarded when it comes to driving, it doesn't make your actions any safer.
There is no reason to drive wrecklessly on roads that are shared by people with kids in their cars or truckers just trying to make a dollar, having to deal with idiots who think they have a license to race around.
The laws are in place for a reason. If you break them, you are, in fact, a criminal. It has nothing to do with the police, they are enforcers. If you get caught driving over the limit, take your lumps.
Preaching to the choir in an ancient thread much?
I sincerely wish that everyone could drive wrecklessly all day every day. A world without wrecks would be great.