Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Street Racing Dangers

Street racing can be an popular past-time for bored youth or car enthusiasts alike, but presents a clear danger to these drivers and everyone else on the highway. While Hollywood images and video game experiences of street racing are commonplace, high-selling affairs, the reality of illegal racing is entirely different. The hero may never wreck their car, despite ridiculous speeds, and the gamer may take a head-on crash in stride, but real drivers in real cars can be injured at even low speeds and doing marginally unexpected maneuvers in traffic.

The culture surrounding street racing has existed for decades. European races originally used main roadways, not necessarily warning pedestrians or other drivers caught in the path. In America, street racing developed heavily in California and Florida. In the case of California, this eventually spawned drag racing, which has gone on to use separate tracks and specialized high-speed vehicles that would be impractical on a regular highway.

To combat illegal racing, many professional racers and law enforcement community members have come together to promote legal racing at sanctioned race tracks. So long as a driver registers his or her vehicle and follows the track's regulations, these sanctioned tracks allow prospective racers to drive their vehicles at whatever legal levels they want to drive. Naturally, illegal modifications, which are often used in street racing, are still illegal, regardless of the track setting.

Street racing is absolutely reckless, no matter how skilled a driver claims to be. Racing at fast speeds can cause a driver to dart in or out of lanes with a turn signal, stop abruptly, make wide turns, and accelerate to a degree that poses a threat to the mechanical integrity of the car.

If you want to learn more about the injuries illegal racing can cause and what kind of liability can be assigned to a racer, contact an experienced car accident attorney.

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