Evo Street Racers: Street Racing Legislation

Grant aids anti-street racing efforts: $400,000, two-year state award helped create task force to arrest violators.

Source: Fresno Bee
Date: May 13, 2006
Author: Louis Galvan

May 13--Thanks to a two-year, $400,000 state grant, efforts to combat street racing will continue this summer, Fresno police and other law enforcement officers warned violators Friday. The grant, issued last June, led to the creation of the Fresno Area Illegal Street Racing Task Force to remove illegally modified vehicles from the roads and to find and arrest street racing violators. The grant expires in June 2007. Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said the program also calls for an effort to educate young drivers not only about the law, but also about the danger to participants and the public. Since the task force was formed, he said, more than 260 citations have been issued to drivers with illegally modified vehicles, and more than 90 people have been arrested for taking part in street racing. At the same time, he said, more than 1,000 high school students have gone through safe-driving sessions and talks about street racing. Fresno California Highway Patrol Lt. Lee Harjo said his officers have written 145 citations for illegally modified vehicles and impounded 44 of them.

David Manning, western region administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said traffic vehicle crashes account for the most deaths in this country for people between 3 and 33 years of age. Impaired drivers and speed, he said, are the main factors in many traffic deaths, with street racing beginning to play a major role in recent years. Christopher J. Murphy, director of the state Office of Traffic Safety, said the grant was part of a $5 million statewide program involving 90 cities to combat street racing. Murphy applauded the local task force's program, which works closely with other Fresno County cities, including Clovis, Kingsburg, Selma, Sanger, Reedley and Coalinga. A news conference to discuss the program was held in a parking lot at the River Park shopping center on North Blackstone Avenue, which authorities say street racing violators are known to use as a starting point. The reporter can be reached at lgalvan@fresnobee.comor (559) 441-6139.