Street Racing and its outcome

[55chevy]

I'm probably one of the few thats been through an accident where having a seatbelt on would have killed me, and not having it on saved my life.... But these days I feel naked in my vehicle if my seatbelt isn't buckled.

[JTH74]

I am also living proof that seatbelts save lives, on Labor day weekend 1991, I was a senior in highschool, with everything going for me, great girlfriend that let me do whatever I wanted, captain of the football team, good grades, great parents, everything was right in my world. My best friend had gotten a new red twin turbo Dodge Stealth, we tried to straighten out a curvy road, he lived on this road so he new it well, we came out this curve at about 90 and the right front tire hit some gravel and sucked us off the road like vaccuum had a hold of the car, got back on the road, thought he had it back, then saw a huge dirt bank in front of us, he hit it head on then we rolled it three times, stopping upside down headed back in the other direction, creased the top and craved it in touching the inside corner of my head rest and pushing my head between the crushed top and the side glass, I was knocked out for a few seconds, my friend was yelling for me, when I did not respond he started freaking out, when I began to hear and see again, it was like someone was turning the volume up very slowly on the radio, and lights kept getting brighter gradually, we then tried to get out, I could get out to my chest and look over the bottom of the car and see people there watching us making a effort to get out, not one of those people offered to help, the car was still running, then my friend jumped up and said I am out, and I was right behind him, he immediately fell down, his back was broken,could not feel his legs(he is ok now). The weekend before we topped the car out, a little over 160 mph, that was the first time I had gotten tunnel vision( a weird feeling the first time it happens), my girlfriend was in the back, when it was over he got sick and threw up, and was really mad with me! Heres the weird part, in 1987 I went a stayed all night with a new friend, his parents had a restored 55 chevy hardtop, we took it to a drive in car show, on the way back a drunk driver pulled out in front of us and we hit him at 60 mph, the next day my mom told me she had a bad feeling about the whole day before, the evening that my best friend picked me up in the Stealth my mom called me back in the house and told me to be careful, that she had a bad feeling about tonight, the same feeling she had when we wrecked the 55, after we wrecked the Stealth and the emergency personnel arrived, which I knew most of them because my dad was a highway patrolman, you do not know how bad I hated for them to call my parents and tell them we had been in an accident! That night was when I realized how precious life is, how short it could be, and that you can pass from this life into eternity in the blink of an eye, that night changed my life! The next time my mom says she has a bad feeling I will listen to her! Sorry for being so long winded guys!

[Norm reynolds]

That is real sad and just a waste of life the problem is there are to many movies like fast and furious and people think they can do like in the move Yes I think at one time or other we might have raced in the streets young and foolish Part of the problem was I would see kids that just got their license and the parents would give them a GTX or 427 chevelle and so on . The way I see it they were to young to handle all that power and to stupid to know better Jeff It is bad enough that the two drivers were playing games but I feel real sad for the passenger in the truck he had nothing to do with this what a waste

[396L35]

The kids are not the only ones at fault here. You have street racing on the big screen, tv, and all kinds of car magazines that give these kids ideals. I know I used to street race when I was younger and thought that I was never going to get hurt and I have been very lucky that nothing ever happen to me, but I lost my brother that way and its not a cool thing to go through. I am glad that the local race track (Gateway International) holds a night race every month for kids to get it out of their systems under adult supervision. They start at midnight and run to 6 am. I think they need to do it at least once every week, and other tracks need to jump aboard to save our youth.

[Chevy454]

I'm in the same boat, Ed. If I had been wearing my seat belt I would I would have been decapitated. I'll give you guys the condensed version: young & dumb 17 year old boy...a black/black '64 Corvette, 327/365/4-speed, hard/soft top convert w/factory ac...hills & curves of the Ozarks...and about a 2 minute rain. The result was a barrell roll, a totalled 'Vette, and a dumb (but lucky) 17 year old in the hospital with road rash from head to toe, a head as big as a watermelon, crushed/fractured vertabrae, and nearly a 2 week stint in the hospital.

All because someone tried to run me...

[shor]

Jeff, I just saw on the local news that NJ serviceman had died in Hawaii car accident?? I wonder if that was the one?

[JChlupsa]

Sad but true both cars were being driven by US Army members. Yes the first pair of Army members in the first car were burnt beyound reconization as was the passenger in the truck. 2nd driver also Army died and the passenger is in critical at Tripler. The truck driver gout out through the drivers window and could only watch as the others yelled out for help. Another road crew who just talked with the truck occupants reported that 2 Eclipses had passed them at a very high rate of speed and then they heard a loud crash and apon their arrival to the crash site did what they could to help oput out the fireball that encapsulated the entire accident scene. These guys were in their Mid 20's.

[matt murphy]

Jeff,

Mid 20's is Young. That is the group that is just getting their first cars. Some get them at 16 or 18, but others have to wait and save. The local street racer scene here is 20 year olds. I'll admit I have done some stupid things in cars, but thankfully, I was lucky enough to not get killed. I too blame the movies and TV for a lot of this stuff these kids see and want to try to do to impress the girls or their friends. I guess fortunately for me my Mom was a nurse and saw too many tragedies at the hospital and didn't want her sons or daughters to end up like the kids she worked with. I wasn't able to get a car until I was out of school. All my friends had cars except me, but my parents believed at a young age you don't need a car. I guess I was lucky because when I was 18, I got hit by a drunk driver on a Saturday afternoon, in my friends subdivision with 6 of my friends in my dads car. We all walked away from that accident, and the drunk ran away and left his mothers car there at the scene, totalled. He convienently reported it stolen later, but left his ID in the car and we also identified him. It is unfortunite that most of us need to experience the death or tragedy to stop doing something as dumb as street racing, or just messing around in cars.

Last May at the Atlanta F-body show, about 100 kids, most of them in their 20's and 30's saw a street race go horrible bad, when 4 kids were in a new Camaro and two others were in a Trans Am. The story was that the Camaro hit his Nitrous and right in front of the host hotel at about 1:30am and with about 80 onlookers watching the race, the Camaro lost control and crashed into the embankment and hit a telephone pole and crashed so violently that the car was ripped in half and the two in the back were thrown and partly decapitated and killed instantly in front of the crowd of cheerers and people egging other drivers to race in the street all night. The driver was thought to be dead and the only one wearing a seat belt was a girl in the front passenger seat, who didn't know any of the other kids in the car, she was just along for the ride to the Waffle House restaurant, when the two drivers decided to line up and race. Their intentions were to go eat and two died and a third who barely survived and a fourth that will forever be traumatized by the accident.

All very sad . . .

[Jeff Murphy]

It's always confused me about the US (and Canada where I'm originally from) that you get a potentially lethal driver's license at such an immature age (for most) and then load on top of it learning how to drink, act like an adult, etc. Even though I enjoyed getting my license at 16 and writing off my first car at 17, I think that the Europeans have things figured out a bit better.

You can drink beer and wine in most countries when you are 16+ (although many start earlier with parents' consent), with driving, voting and military service kicking in at 18. You're a full adult at 18, still young but with a bit more experience behind you.

Plus if you can go off and fight a war you can have a drink... Never understood the 21 drinking age / 18 draft age thing.

[skierkaj]

I've heard from a kid at my high school (he was over in Afghanistan; just 19 or 20 years old!), that if you wanna drink, it's no problem when you're in the army. People will just give one to you, no matter what age you are.