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L.A. Officials' New Strategy Against Illegal Races Packs Big Wallop. Law Sends Some Seized Cars to Scrap Heap.
By Amanda Covarrubias, Los Angeles Times
Hoping to discourage illegal drag racing, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton and Mayor James K. Hahn held a car-crushing demonstration Wednesday at a Sun Valley junkyard intended to send a strong message to violators: Race, and you risk arrest and the demolition of your vehicle.
After two incidents this month involving illegal street racing, Bratton and Hahn said it was time to remind racers drawn to the San Fernando Valley's wide boulevards that the activity won't be tolerated.
"We went almost a year without any street fatalities," Capt. Greg Meyer of the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Traffic Division said before Wednesday's demonstration. "But we've seen racing start up again because they forget. This is a dramatic reminder of what can happen if you get caught street racing in the city of Los Angeles."
Bratton and Hahn presided over the destruction of the first vehicle confiscated after the city's car seizure law went into effect in July 2003. The law, aimed at cracking down on street racing, allows for the destruction of "nuisance vehicles."
For years police have struggled to crack down on street racing in the San Fernando Valley. Earlier this month, two teenage boys died and another was seriously injured while racing in Sun Valley.
The injured boy, 17-year-old Michael Lee, is recovering from brain surgery. The two who died, Nicholas Roth and Christopher Oliver, were also 17 and seniors at Village Christian High School. No charges have been filed, but the case is still under investigation, Meyer said.
A week after that accident, police arrested 12 people during an illegal gathering in Van Nuys, where they confiscated two souped-up Ford Mustangs.
"People say we're taking away their fun," Hahn said Wednesday. "But it's no fun to go to somebody's funeral. If you want to race, go out to a real raceway and do it."
Seven vehicles have been seized since the new confiscation law went into effect. Some will be destroyed and others will be sold for their parts.
The recent increase in street racing corresponds with a 17% rise in traffic-related deaths in the Valley, where there have been 69 traffic fatalities this year. Three were the result of racing, Meyer said. There were 59 traffic fatalities in 2003.
"We're telling them, 'Some of you care more about your cars than your lives,' " said Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who sponsored the car-seizure law and represents an area where much of the city's street racing occurs. "It's not a game. It's not a movie. It's a choice that has consequences and it's illegal."
L.A. Officials' New Strategy Against Illegal Races Packs Big Wallop. Law Sends Some Seized Cars to Scrap Heap.
By Amanda Covarrubias, Los Angeles Times
Hoping to discourage illegal drag racing, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton and Mayor James K. Hahn held a car-crushing demonstration Wednesday at a Sun Valley junkyard intended to send a strong message to violators: Race, and you risk arrest and the demolition of your vehicle.
After two incidents this month involving illegal street racing, Bratton and Hahn said it was time to remind racers drawn to the San Fernando Valley's wide boulevards that the activity won't be tolerated.
"We went almost a year without any street fatalities," Capt. Greg Meyer of the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Traffic Division said before Wednesday's demonstration. "But we've seen racing start up again because they forget. This is a dramatic reminder of what can happen if you get caught street racing in the city of Los Angeles."
Bratton and Hahn presided over the destruction of the first vehicle confiscated after the city's car seizure law went into effect in July 2003. The law, aimed at cracking down on street racing, allows for the destruction of "nuisance vehicles."
For years police have struggled to crack down on street racing in the San Fernando Valley. Earlier this month, two teenage boys died and another was seriously injured while racing in Sun Valley.
The injured boy, 17-year-old Michael Lee, is recovering from brain surgery. The two who died, Nicholas Roth and Christopher Oliver, were also 17 and seniors at Village Christian High School. No charges have been filed, but the case is still under investigation, Meyer said.
A week after that accident, police arrested 12 people during an illegal gathering in Van Nuys, where they confiscated two souped-up Ford Mustangs.
"People say we're taking away their fun," Hahn said Wednesday. "But it's no fun to go to somebody's funeral. If you want to race, go out to a real raceway and do it."
Seven vehicles have been seized since the new confiscation law went into effect. Some will be destroyed and others will be sold for their parts.
The recent increase in street racing corresponds with a 17% rise in traffic-related deaths in the Valley, where there have been 69 traffic fatalities this year. Three were the result of racing, Meyer said. There were 59 traffic fatalities in 2003.
"We're telling them, 'Some of you care more about your cars than your lives,' " said Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who sponsored the car-seizure law and represents an area where much of the city's street racing occurs. "It's not a game. It's not a movie. It's a choice that has consequences and it's illegal."
