Evo Street Racers: Anti-Street Racing Legislation

Street racing continues to be a deadly problem
California appears to have taken the lead in preventing Street Racing and other legal entities can gain knowledge from the success and failures of their efforts...

Source: SSHEP
Date: Feb 6, 2006

Street racing -- often dangerous, sometimes deadly, always illegal -- continues despite efforts by police to apply the brakes. Law enforcement officials say there is little they can do to stop spontaneous challenges among drivers eager to race.

A street racing accident Thursday morning on a busy Citrus Heights road killed one driver and critically injured his passenger. Authorities say they hope the arrest of the other driver, who officials said fled the scene, will send a message to other racers.

Jason Antoine Golson, 22, is in Sacramento County Main Jail on suspicion of second-degree murder for the death of Steve Allen Skattebo, 25, of Rancho Cordova, whom he was racing.

For several years, state and area leaders have tried to crack down on street racing through laws, ordinances and funding. In 2002, the state Legislature passed a law allowing officers to impound cars used in illegal street racing. This fall, Rancho Cordova city leaders passed an ordinance to allow the arrest of spectators at illegal street races. Sacramento city officials passed a similar ordinance earlier this year. State grants have allowed for the creation of a multiagency task force to crack down on the illegal sport. From October to the end of December, officers in the DRAGNET unit have issued 550 traffic citations and towed 35 vehicles for illegal street racing violations, said Sgt. Terrell Marshall, Sacramento Police spokesman. The tickets and tows are preventative measures, authorities said. But they don't always work. On Friday In Los Angeles, authorities believe an illegal street race led to a car crashing into a clinic, injuring 13 people. In December, Darrell Russell, a former Raiders defensive tackle, and another man were killed in what officials said may have been a street race. In August, Roneel Prasad, 20, was killed in what witnesses said was a street race on Power Inn Road in south Sacramento. A Woodland woman, Kimberly Marie Wheeler, 40, was killed in June in a North Natomas accident. Authorities believe she was struck by street racers.