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Drag-race crash kills 7 in crowd - CNN.com

Things like this are always bad to see or hear about. Then they make for another black eye for the rodding community that is trying to set things straight. Law makers 1, rodders 0.

Barb,

I'm glad that the article referred to it as a "street race." To often, they call any illegal activity a "drag race." It gives the uninformed public the wrong idea about what automotive sports is all about.

It's terrible thing , just read article. Seem most of these accident are youger ones. Get car with more power then can handle. Most time any more alchol is involved. Don't realize how easy for things go wrong. It happen me 1984 I was twenty and passenger will walk rest life with limp. My nephew couple years ago got 97 Mustang G.T. built for his 16th birthday. Family was on pins needles. I give him allot credit he has respect for car.

Really bad situation. I've seen these "races" on TV, and it is surprising more people aren't hurt or killed. Spectators lining the street right next to where two cars are going at breakneck speeds.

Every so often when we are working late at our shop the ricer crowd comes down an adjacent street and start racing. We call the cops and tell them what is going on, but they never show up. The last time I called I chewed the 911 operator out because I told her "someone is going to get killed racing on this narrow street" and still no cops came. So the ricers just keep doing it for as long as they want.

Don

Very sad. I think we've all done stupid things one time or another. I'm lucky I never hurt anyone or myself. The Dukes of Hazzard was on TV when I was a teenager. We used to go out in the country in a friends dad's truck, and speed like hell toward a mounded railroad crossing in the middle of nowhere. We would stand up in the bed of the truck hitting the crossing doing 50-60mph and go airborn! Stupid!
Some kids on our football team did something similar a few years later, while drunk. The driver survived and all of his friends died.

The Local News here in So'Eastern Mass kept calling it a drag race. And keeps referring to the locals who race on the highways as drag racers. Shame how they want to slant it and harm the legit racers who keep it on a track. They'll get everyone worked up against them "Drag Racers".... and any kid who spins a wheel on the street will be a "Drag Racer"... We had a set of railroad tracks that were higher than the street in the next town over. In the seventies, no-one lived out there, we used to hit'em about 60 -70... get airborne... Stupid? Yeah, I can say that now. It sure was fun then tho'!! I lost 4 or 5 exhaust systems on a 65 fastback mustang doing that. Them ball joints didn't last to long either! 8-)

NY Times called it a "drag race"...but it makes no difference 7 people died last night and more were injured.
Yup we've all done some stupid things behind the wheel, I'm sure. When I was in HS in the mid 60's we'd often participate in or watch the nightime grudge drags that we're run just outside the city limits on a county road(thus under the jurisdiction of the Sheriffs Dept.and least likely to incur the rath of the law as the city police at that time had no jurisdiction outside the city limits), as far as I can remember there were no tragedies back then though a few guys did lose control and ended up in the barrow pit on one side or the other of the road. But no one lined the road to watch most everyone stayed behind the starting line and a few watched from the finish line.
Always sad to read or hear about something like this happening

I have never seen the attraction to street racing and never will. I am at the drag strip every weekend though.

The press really fouled up this report. This is apparently the correct version:

ACCOKEEK, Md. - A car plowed into a crowd that had gathered to watch a drag race on a suburban road early Saturday, killing eight people and injuring at least five, police said.

Police said the white sedan was not involved in the street race but accidentally drove into the crowd of about 50 people that had spilled onto the highway to watch two racing cars speed off.

Yet on the same web page, the related video is titled "seven killed when street racer plows into crowd."

Of course, this doesn't reduce the tragedy. It just shows that the media could screw up a bread sandwich.

So, how fast could the white car have been going to cause this much damage by hitting people? From the photos, it looks like rescue personnel removed the doors from the car. They're intact in some pictures.

The headlines to the article that I just read said that a "crash at a local illegal drag race killed 8 people". What the headlines did not say was that the only part in the accident arttributable to the racers was the burnouts that caused so much smoke on the road that the driver of the white Crown Vic couldn't see the people until he had hit them. Truly a tragic accident, unneccesary loss of life, including a 61 man who was a bystander (death witnessed by his daughter).

I can understand the smoke problem, as I have seen this situation at several local shows when the idiots begin lighting up their tires. Many times you can not see the cars let alone, what's going on around the burn-outs. The hosts of these shows always beg the participants not to do the burn-outs, because the primary result is that the cruise in location is usually lost, due to public complaint snf outrage.

As for the guy in the White Crrown Vic he should have seen the smoke and slowed down, no good excuse to be going that fast in those conditions. No matter if it was smoke from a burn-out or a trash fire, the guy should have seen it before he entered the area. Unless of course he was already driving impaired, which the article did not state. It did say that a passenger in the Crown Vic was amongh the dead. And that says alot.

Truly a tragedy regardless of fault. Also a tragedy due to the media mis-labeling the tragedy and implying that it was a result of drag racing, and not labeling it correctly as a street race. For those who read the entire article and understand the differece between the two, it is a good thing. But those who do not understand and do not read the entire article it will be just be another slight against our hobby. And that in itself is a tragedy of a different sort.

Later news said that the "passenger" in the Crown Vic wasn't a passenger at all. He was one of the people that was hit, and ended up inside.

I am amazed at the number of people who will blast through fog or smoke. We see multiple car pile-ups in fog all the time. The scary part is that if you stop because of the fog or smoke, it's likely some idiot will ram you from behind.

I read a research on driving through fog. They found out that people thing they're slowing down, but they're actually speeding up. The fog reduces the feeling of speed because there are no visual clues. It's like the automobile version of the pilot's "dead man's spiral."

I've driven through some bad ass fog in my life, especially when living around the water. Once had to stand on the front bumper to see an overhead road sign on I 95 in Maryland. I turn on all of my outside lights and go slow.

Several years ago while traveling to Florida when Florida was having all the wild fires, we ran into very heavy smoke going down 301 in northern Florida. The weird thing was that the smoke was coming from fires 40 miles to the east of where we where. Smoke to me is as bad if not worse than fog. In smoke, even the a/c systems don't function well and soon or later you smell like smoke and your eyes get funky.

well this is just more bad news looking to blame some one that should of not done something alot of us have done. the racers were long gone and did not have nothing to do with the accident did they make smoke ? well if so the guy should of slow down or used the brake that would be the pedal left of the gas pedal. i see more and more of cars running in to crowds of people the way i see it is the guy in the vick is at fault. if it was a car that was a oil burner or a fire or fog could you hang all the blame on that? it to bad it happen but standing on a hi way is not a good place to be

I think are state ( IL ) is the street race capitol of the world . Man there are streets that the guys go up and down racing at every light . And In Chicago on Friday night the Out Law street racers come out . And them guy tow there 9sec cars to a spot that is clear . Then the big money racing starts . One Time I went to a speed shop to pick up some head gaskets . And there was a Out Law street racer guy picking up a Full built and dyno ran 434 SB . That guy was not the kind of guy you would want mad at you He told me the engine was for his 80 Buick regal . Them guys love to build the G body 80s mid size cars . I did some street racing back when you could win some money with a 12sec car . But the big time street racers now will not pull there car of there trailer for less then $500 bucks . This is like Pinks racing on the street but heads up ever time . But the good thing with these guys . They find a spot to race open and clear of other cars and people . Then they just have to make sure there Dogs don't Fight !