Be careful out there!

[TOOLman]

A couple of days ago, in a small town in the south of Sweden, two cars were street-racing when one of the drivers (a 20-y/o male) lost control of his vehicle and smashed right into a bus stop. Seven people were injured, most of them were young women. A 16-y/o girl is in a respirator, but the doctors say her condition is stable.

A few months ago, a cab driver was killed when he got in the way of two young men racing.

Those of you who like to race on city streets, please be careful - for your own sake and for others'.

[JT's TJ]

Or, how 'bout if you just don't race at all on city streets.

Tommy you write as if it's legal to race in Swedish streets. I am just misinterpreting that?

[Boogeyman]

Now I'll admit it, I've ran a few runs on a streetstrip.

I've also seen a motorcycleist get killed racing down a street.


Here in the midwest (iowa) we build alot of hotrods since there's not much else to do. and because of this Farmers, City's, & such have built strips for us to race.
The idea was give them a place to run, they wont kill innocent people. It has worked, since the local strips are there the street injuries are very few, and since the strip was made for the racing it also has had minimal injuries. If the accidents are becomming more frequent, do some research on you community and find a piece of land that would be suitable for racing. Farmers often of children whom build these kind of cars, and for the right $$$ would sell a bit of land for the racing. Once you have location found, get every signature you can and take it to your community/city council and show them the offer and support. The city will also look at it as a possible money maker since a gate fee can be charged.

[TOOLman]

Or, how 'bout if you just don't race at all on city streets.

Tommy you write as if it's legal to race in Swedish streets. I am just misinterpreting that?

Jon - I agree that you shouldn't race on city streets, but I didn't want it to look as if I were pointing the finger at anyone. I've noticed that people (myself included) have a tendency to overreact if they feel they're being accused of something.

Street racing is very very illegal in Sweden. That doesn't mean that it doesn't happen, though. Let's face it: kids will be kids. Most of us have done stupid things some times in our lives. I know I have. I wrote this hoping that some of those who do race on city streets might think twice about it next time. I definitely don't condone it, and I'd never participate in it myself.

Boogeyman - building strips is a good initiative. People have always wanted to race one another, whether it be with horses, motorcycles, or cars. Building a place where they can do it safely, without risking innocent lives, is great.

[JT's TJ]

Fair enough... for the most part, I agree!

I guess I'm more of a "just say no" guy than you are, but I can see where you're coming from.

[TOOLman]

I'm not so sure...I can say no to many things. :)
It's just that if you post "look you stupid b@stards what happens when you race", the ones who really need to read it will get very defensive and say "that would never happen to me, 'cuz I'm so careful" blah blah...

Actually, I think we agree on this, so why are we still discussing it? Oh yeah, my fault :)

[Warlock]

But unfortunately, if you live in the State of North Dakota, you better plan on going to Minnesota to race. They will not let you even open the old strips in ND.:(

[dh-king]

No street racing for me, I like to rally the back roads although I know it's dangerous as well.

When my first YJ was stolen I bought an accura and raced it around too much. I sold it because I dove way too fast and bought another YJ.

Tony

[Chris S]

I did the street racing when I was younger. Same sort of small town thing where everybody did it for lack of anything better to do. Thing was, we had a strip of highway outside of town that wasn't very busy. We painted start and finish lines on it (highways loved us for that :)) and placed a person with a car up on the bank at each end. If the guy at either end saw traffic he would turn his headlights on and we would stop until the traffic was clear.

When I was in high school my dad's car was 2nd fastest in town. The high school Vice Principal's car was 5th fastest, and the Principal's was 9th. :D