Yabo

Another kid died, and another is in critical condition from my town. This happened saturday night. I guess kids were racing and one lost control and went sideways right into a tree, fast enough that the front end of the car separated from the rest. The kid who died was the passenger. Two kids from my high school have died in car accidents in the last 3 or 4 months.. which is crazy for around here. luckily i didn't know either of them personally. we only have like 900 kids in our whole school. When are kids going to learn to be ****ing responsible?
i've heard from my friends they were supposedly doing about 100, in a dodge neon (what are you thinking doing that in that car, especially on a two lane road with speed limit of 40.)

I know this is OT, but i just felt like posting it anyway, this is rediculous... hopefully at least kids around here will be a little smarter from now on...

picture of the memorial kids made with a cross out of hockey sticks (he was a hockey player)

Peckster

Some kid died up here this weekend too when a car hit a tree sideways, a Civic racing a Sunfire if you can believe that! Too much testosterone, sounds like neither wanted to back off and when they hit a curve one of them had no idea what he was doing.

What a friggin' waste. If someone wants to race me in the city I just laugh at them. Any moron can go fast in a straight line.

BeerBurner

It's amazing the number of people (not just kids) who think that they know what they are doing, and the accidents will only happen to the other guy. They don't seem to realize that someone has to be the "other guy".

I remember being young and stupid, too. I never actually raced anyone, but I did have a thing for flinging my dad's '74 911 down a twisty two-lane road. At the time I thought I took "reasonable" precautions, such as taking my time going one way to look for road hazards, never actually allowing myself to go airborne, always staying in my lane, things like that. Sure, I probably did more than your average high school kid did, but looking back, it was not nearly enough.

There was one road in particular that I loved to fly down. Every time I went down it, I'd push it a little bit harder. Then one day it suddenly occurred to me that I've been pressing my luck, and for all I knew the next run would be the one where I went just a little too far. So, I stopped doing it. In fact, I didn't even go down that road for a long time, just to avoid the temptation.

Fast-forward about a year...

A friend and I were leaving school, and again, I was in the 911. He commented about how the car feels like it really hugged the road. So, I went back to that one road to zip along it. I didn't haul *** like I used to do, but I was definately going quicker than I should have. I was going about 40-45 mph on a low-visibility right-hand bend when out of nowhere I see a red Pontiac Fiero coming towards me, in my lane! Being the inexperienced driver that I was, I slammed on the brakes and cranked the wheel to the right. Somehow, I avoided the Fiero, but the laws of physics took over and the tail shot to the left. I kept out of a flat spin, but then the tail swug about 180* to the right and slammed into a dirt embankment. Still sliding along, the car was pulled into a ditch where I plowed through several small trees, a mailbox and then ended up in somebody's front yard.

The Fiero never stopped.

After I had the "Oh, ****! I almost died!" panic attack, I got an even sicker feeling... the feeling that less than a year before, I could have just as easily been that Fiero and done this to someone else. That bothered me.

I learned my lesson in the form of a $5,000 accident. Fortunately, though, it could have been worse. No one was hurt, which was even more amazing as my friend's arm was hanging out the window when I slammed into the embankment. My dad's pride and joy was battered almost as much as my pride was, but aside from the occasional (and deserved) Hell I'd be given for it, there were no long-term effects.

Ever since then, I cannot bring myself to push the car on the public roads. The track, yes, but I do not like anything more than that slight, happy squeal when I'm feeling particularily frisky. I've always felt that while I have no problems putting myself at risk, I refuse to do it to someone else. And in the uncontrolled public streets, well, there's too much that can go wrong.

I only hope that more people will get that scare before something really bad happens.

Wow. I hadn't intended to write all of this. I just kinda got going.

BB.

Dave in Chicago

My student at Road America this last weekend was a young man 18 years of age. Has a nice mildly chipped '86 951. I'm sure he can drive circles around all the yuks on the street. Thankfully, he chooses to take it to the track. I wish they all did.

joseph mitro

yep, same story in OKC two weeks ago. two teenage kids died in their honda trying to street race

Legoland951

Unfortunately, the people who should read and heed the lessons of this thread won't read it or learn from it.....

Don 944 LA

Some states have a law that if someone is killed in a " Street race " then the driver(s) go to jail for manslaughter. Even if your in the other car.

Bhj0887

I went to jail for an accident, no racing was involved a ball joint snapped when I was doing 40 (speed limit was 40) and we hit head on. There's more too it, but I had to get stitches, the other people weren't hurt but because they went to the hospital I went to jail for what was supposed to be 14 days turned into 2 months thanks to some smart mouth kids. Anyway, I'm not sure exactly how this pertains to the thread. But some states will put you in jail for bull****.

Yabo

yeah well. i dont know how much jails gonna hurt this kid who was driving.. i heard he's paralyzed.

Joe Anstett

Gulp! Was this in a p-car?

Z-man

I am saddened when I hear news like this.

It is surprising how kids think they know what they are doing with little experience and unknown conditions! Heck, I have some experience and play on the track, yet even in that situation, things can go bad fast: like my little spin at Lime Rock earlier this year.

Keep it safe and keep it off the streets!
-Z-man.

MarlonBrando

Yes.

It's too often around here i hear of wrecks and crashes that take he life of people under 25. Mostly under 19. It's become so bad, that if in Ontario (Industrial city with many 45-60 zones) if you're caught for racing, have a crash related to racing, your license will be suspended until you're 25 (if under 21), car impounded (or what's left of it), jail time, and a big fine. If you're over 25, you'll get car impounded, large fines, license revoked for undetermined time, and a nice misdemeanor charge (felony if if injury or death involved).

That still doesn't prevent it, though. Too many times a day and night i see these kids with their "suped up cars" trying to drag-race eachother. I guess they watched too much "Fast and the Furious" and "2 Fast 2 Furious". Then at least once a week i see said suped up car tipped over a curb with the rear wheels missing and a passenger out the windshield, wrapped around a pole, or plowed through the side of another car in the middle of the road.

StupEd05

We have had a couple accidents involving kids "racing" around here. A couple of my friends do it once in a while. But I am hoping that once we are 18 I can get them out to a couple of DE's and take them up to the track on the weekends where it belongs.

coolhand

Definitely keep it off the streets. I had an accident today where i ran off the road and really tore up my car. I wasnt racing anyone, and i was going around a corner i had gone around a thousand times before. But this time there was some loose gravel i didnt see and i lost it and went off the road missing a telephone pole by about 3 feet. i would've been really messed up if i would have hit that pole. I wasnt hurt but my ego and my car was, all because i was going too fast. Keep it safe people.


P.S. Anyone have a couple phonedials they want to sell me? I rock took a nice chunk out of both my right wheels.

Yabo

got some pics coolhand?

sorry to hear about it... thankfully you are ok.