Amid rising concerns about dangerous teen driving behaviors sits a common threat rarely considered outside of popular depictions in such movies as Rebel Without a Cause, Grease, and The Fast and the Furious: street racing. 

Perhaps surprisingly, teens themselves rank street racing as one of the most risky in a slate of driving practices that lead to crashes, injuries, and, too often, deaths (between 2001 and 2006, 804 fatalities have been attributed to street racing, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration).

Indeed, a new study from Liberty Mutual Insurance and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) reveals that a vast majority of teens (97 percent) feel that street racing is dangerous, listing it above cell phone use, speeding, having more than three passengers in the car, being upset, using a GPS system, and changing clothes while driving.

Nevertheless, the research points out that more than one third of teen drivers (38 percent) say they have engaged in street racing. 

That’s bad news.

So, too, are media accounts of the consequences.

In Eagle Rock, California, four teens were killed (including three from one family) and another was critically injured in what an LAPD lieutenant called “a high speed drag race,” according to egpnews.

In Eugene, Oregon, a college football player required 75 stitches to close a gash in his head, the result of speed racing, said the Associated Press.

In Mountainside, New Jersey, an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old were killed after their Chevy Corvette crashed in a street race against a Chevy Camaro, reported My Central Jersey.

And on Staten Island in New York, seven teens were transported to the hospital after a street racing crash that ultimately claimed the life of a 17-year-old who succumbed to what WNBC4 referred to as severe head and internal injuries.

These stories merely scratch the surface of the death and destruction wrought by this alarming activity.

 

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Issue: December 2008