Will these stupid idiots ever learn?

[Rayvyn]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080216/ap_on_re_us/drag_racing_deaths;_ylt=AuMGR9H28cQ.OV7htwk8wkCs0NUE

Here in town, Nick Bollea (Hulk Hogans son) was street racing. His passenger was a boyhood friend who was in the Marines and home on leave from Iraq. He is now paralyzed, disfigured and in and out of comas. The driver (Bollea) only got a scratch.

3 people killed in our county 2 weeks ago, 2 of them innocent people. 2 cars racing north on a VERY crowded highway, 1 loses control, jumps a median and takes out 2 people in a Cadillac going the other direction on a divided highway.

2 kids killed in the neighboring county 2 weeks ago racing and crashing. The car missed a turn, clipped a tree and sailed over 100" in the air before it landed on its roof. It was a convertible. They almost had to clean up the bodies with a shop vac.

And don't get me started on all those skinny little rice rocket drivers that use the highways as a personal Grand Am course. On the average, at least 2-3 per week are getting killed down here on those damned things.

I don't give 2 * about the drivers/racers. It does chap my * that innocent folks have to suffer as well.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

yes , a terrible thing.

[Deuce]

I would imagine that all of us have done this race on the road deal a few times. I will admit to it ... years ago. I ran a low 11 second/high 10 second drag car on a deserted road many times in the early 70's.

We went out in a remote rural spot and drag raced. For $$$

I was in the lower part of the state yesterday where I used to live back then and and went to Edisto Beach. On the way home, I went by where we used to race. There is a new High School being built and houses everywhere.

Only a fool would try to race there now.

I would guess in the area of Maryland where this happened ... there is no remote, deserted rural roads ...

Hate that innocent folks died ...

[phat46]

I saw that as well this morning. At first I thought it was an organised dragrace, like NHRA, till I read the story. The real problem is that most people who are not car enthusiests will see "Drag Race" and think that all drag racing is that stupid and dangerous. That will trickle down to anyone with a non-stock vehicle as being dangerous also. A blackeye given to a large group by a very small group. I can't feel too badly for the participants or spectators that voluntarily put themselves in harms way, they know, or should know by now the dangers they are exposing themselves to. It's, as always, innocent bystanders that pay the price for stupid peoples lack of self control.

[enjenjo]

As far as I am concerned, that was street racing, not drag racing. After nearly 60 years, you would think they could get it right.

[Crafty]

people getting seriously hurt and killed through street racing is a terrible thing, remember thi was going on in the late 40s / early 50s and was one of the reasons that drag racing started. Maybe somehow these kids need reminding to take it to the track.

On a slight tangent, why do most highways in the US not have a central barrier ? All UK motorways (freeways/interstates) and dual lane A roads (highways) have a central crash barrier, it does save alot of nasty accidents, although vehicles do sometimes manage to jump it and end up in the other lane, but its not that common. Just wondering how many accidents it'd prevent / minimise.

You can see a typical central crash barrier here: http://flickr.com/photos/bobasonic/72935214/

[tomslik]

people getting seriously hurt and killed through street racing is a terrible thing, remember thi was going on in the late 40s / early 50s and was one of the reasons that drag racing started. Maybe somehow these kids need reminding to take it to the track.

On a slight tangent, why do most highways in the US not have a central barrier ? All UK motorways (freeways/interstates) and dual lane A roads (highways) have a central crash barrier, it does save alot of nasty accidents, although vehicles do sometimes manage to jump it and end up in the other lane, but its not that common. Just wondering how many accidents it'd prevent / minimise.

You can see a typical central crash barrier here: http://flickr.com/photos/bobasonic/72935214/

do we REALLY need MORE protection?
stupidity SHOULD hurt!
unfortunately, sometimes innocent bystanders get hurt but people die in bathtubs, too.

it doesn't sound like "innocent" bystanders  were hurt in this case, they KNEW what was going of (unless i misread).....

not to pick on ya but i've been seeing more of the roundabouts (correct term?)being built here....
   
think demo derby with a center island........

[kb426]

I read that twice. It says that a Crown vic with no lights plows into a crowd. There was many things wrong with this deal. I can't understand people standing in the street to watch. Without knowing the whole story, you don't know who to post blame on. It shouldn't have happened, period. If you think you have to street race, why is there a crowd involved? Things are really different than when I was young. I agree with Frank, it still is street racing.

[Rayvyn]

people getting seriously hurt and killed through street racing is a terrible thing, remember thi was going on in the late 40s / early 50s and was one of the reasons that drag racing started. Maybe somehow these kids need reminding to take it to the track.

On a slight tangent, why do most highways in the US not have a central barrier ? All UK motorways (freeways/interstates) and dual lane A roads (highways) have a central crash barrier, it does save alot of nasty accidents, although vehicles do sometimes manage to jump it and end up in the other lane, but its not that common. Just wondering how many accidents it'd prevent / minimise.

You can see a typical central crash barrier here: http://flickr.com/photos/bobasonic/72935214/

do we REALLY need MORE protection?
stupidity SHOULD hurt!
unfortunately, sometimes innocent bystanders get hurt but people die in bathtubs, too.

it doesn't sound like "innocent" bystanders  were hurt in this case, they KNEW what was going of (unless i misread).....

not to pick on ya but i've been seeing more of the roundabouts (correct term?)being built here....
   
think demo derby with a center island........

We had those damned traffic circles in NJ for years before they started taking them out. Everybody knew how to drive through or around one because the only drivers in NJ were Jersey drivers. (Who else would go there)
They put one up here in town right at the main intersection as soon as cars got across the inlet bridge out to the island. Talk about a cluster
%&#$, people from all 50 states and 20 countries all driving like they were home, trying to get around that thing.
So in their infinite wisdom, the brainiacs from the City of Clearwater took out the circle and put a huge water fountain there. At least we could see over the circle but the water makes it impossible. The folks and the cops complained, so they lowered the height of the water and built a circle around it.
We're still trying to figure that one out.
But these are the same brainiacs who wanted a new bridge built over to the island to get rid of traffic. They went and hired a company that's being investigated and sued in 3 other states for shoddy work.
Needless to say, that company started the project at both ends, but on the land side they never drove the pilings far enough into the bedrock to the point of refusal, and a 50' span literally sank about 6' after they got it up.
So they fix that and keep on building. Now that the ends are coming together, they find that one side is 4' higher than the other. Go figure.
And it's the same company that built the Crosstown expressway over south Tampa and had 6 sections collapse one night, and 17 more suffered damage.
Ya gotta love Cuban engineers...

[UGLY OLDS]

Years ago when I had my trailered race car..There was a bumper sticker on the back bumper that said.."Street Racing is NOT Drag Racing"...People laughed at me.....  


The town close to us also started using "roundabouts" or "traffic circles" in residential areas to try to control traffic speed....They built 6 before discovering neither Fire Trucks or Snow Plows could negotiate them  :oops:  :oops:


Bob....

[Crafty]

do we REALLY need MORE protection?
stupidity SHOULD hurt!
unfortunately, sometimes innocent bystanders get hurt but people die in bathtubs, too.

it doesn't sound like "innocent" bystanders  were hurt in this case, they KNEW what was going of (unless i misread).....

not to pick on ya but i've been seeing more of the roundabouts (correct term?)being built here....
   
think demo derby with a center island........

mmm, okay, put it this way, your nearest and dearest has been off to a town 30-50 miles away and is travelling back home, a few miles ahead on the other carriageway a couple of idiots are racing, one loses control, crosses the median and hits your nearest and dearest head on doing lets say 60-70mph, the other car is doing say 50mph, it aint gonna be pretty.
The idea of the crash barriers is to protect the innocents.
Not arguing, just a different point of view. It still doesn't stop idiots driving badly and then crashing, but like you say its hard to have any sympathy for them.

Roundabouts, yeah we're kinda used to them, they are no big deal really.. remember our road networks are very different to yours, a roundabout may have 5 separate roads leading off of it. Example:
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=50.896158,-1.31793&spn=0.004148,0.011694&t=h&z=17 They work here because of how the roads intersect, I don't really see the need for them at typical junctions in the US, especially near/in towns where everything is laid out in blocks anyway. Take a look around google maps of over here, our roads are pretty weird compared to the US!

Interesting that you say there is talk of using more roundabouts, a couple of years ago this junction http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=50.845934,-1.087976&spn=0.002076,0.005847&t=k&z=18 was changed from a roundabout to a light controlled junction (you can see part of the roundabout on the top left), not dissimilar to US ones - except it hs *alot* more lights, something like 70 or so I believe - remember we have no equivelent of the "turn right on red" rule, so we end up with filter lights that hold the straight on traffic but then allow the turning traffic to proceed, kinda dumb when I think about it.

For those unsure about how roundabouts work, quick description of the "proper" way to negoiate one here.. remember we drive on the LEFT, you go clockwise around roundabouts..

taking 1st exit: Approach roundabout with left turn signal on, stop before joining roundabout and give way to the right, when it is clear join the roundabout, keep to the outside and take your exit.

taking 2nd exit: Approach roundabout with no turn signal on, give way to the right (as per above) join roundabout, once past the first exit put left turn signal on, and proceed to take the 2nd exit.

taking 3rd exit: Approach roundabout with right turn indicator on, give way to the right (as above), stay close to the inside of the roundabout, once past the 2nd exit indicate left and smoothly move to the outside of the roundabout and proceed to take 3rd exit.

if taking 4th/5th etc exit do the same as the 3rd exit, you just switch turn indicators as you pass the exit preceeding the one you want to take.

Of course this is the theory, it all goes to pot somewhat on the roundabouts that have ore than one lane !

Typical accidents at roundabouts happen when you are sat behind another car waiting to join the roundabout and are looking right to see if its clear to poceed (remember we drive right hand drive cars), the car in front is out of your vision, you think the guy has gone, theres a gap on the roundabout, you pull forward to go, only to find the guy in front changed his mind / stalled the car etc and you've just parked neatly in the trunk of his car... Other than that they are fairly accident free (no worse than the roads anyway).

We really need to take the "turn right on red" rule - of course here it'd be turn left on red.. wont happen though, right now our government is convinced that cars are the root of all evil and are determined to tax everyone off the roads... hell even before you buy gas it will cost you the best part of $500 US to even take it off the driveway, then you have to buy insurance etc..

We do have problems with street racing, but its not really like the us where a bunch of people stand round and watch, usually friends out racing each other...

[Crosley.In.AZ]

not to go off on a tangent here.....  round abouts suck. A few built in north Phoenix area near the I-17 .  I've never felt so unsafe in regular traffic at a slow speed.



these by-standers at this illegal drag race knew what was happening and should have known better than be where the cars were headed.

I sure many of the folks here have seen the off road racers in Mexico races with the crowds along side the race track. Some folks play checken with these vehicles..... or the idiot spectators along side the race course of the road rally type races

[Topsterguy]

Up here in western Canada what really * me off about all this is that when you read about these street races ( cuz they don't have the balls, or the cars to take them to the strip) you notice, without fail, that the names are, well, uh, "not Canadian / American", and our courts don't have the balls to just deport them if they cause a death. We had a couple of instances where these dumb%$^& 's were racing and some innocent people were killed, and the courts either gave them probation or a couple of years, and even then they were out and back on the streets in a few months! One loser had been in other trouble as well so they deported him, but his "community" raised so much ^%&* about it he stayed! Grrrrrrrr! :evil:

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Up here in western Canada what really * me off about all this is that when you read about these street races ( cuz they don't have the balls, or the cars to take them to the strip) you notice, without fail, that the names are, well, uh, "not Canadian / American", and our courts don't have the balls to just deport them if they cause a death. We had a couple of instances where these dumb%$^& 's were racing and some innocent people were killed, and the courts either gave them probation or a couple of years, and even then they were out and back on the streets in a few months! One loser had been in other trouble as well so they deported him, but his "community" raised so much ^%&* about it he stayed! Grrrrrrrr! :evil:

Not sure IF you have heard of Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa county in Arizona... he has been rounding up illegal immigrants that are on court ordered probation for crimes committed and Joe deports them.

His view is that the known illegal immigrant  should have been deported as soon as the verdict was read IF they were going to jail or not.  IF the illegal immigrant goes to jail , after they serve their time then he wants them deported , NOT on probation.  The crimes range from auto accidents to crimes against children

[unklian]

Coupe rich kids,both in new Mercedes,were street racing
near here last summer,killed some innocent taxi driver.

The rich kids walked,because the Crown "couldn't prove they were racing".

The only good thing to come of it,the provincial law defining "racing"
was changed to include speeds 50 km/h or more over the posted limit.

50 km/h is 30 mph.

I think if you get caught,they pull your license pending trial.
And they have been catching people.