WHITEHALL, Ohio -- Police in Whitehall are looking for a car they say was involved in an illegal street race Monday night.

Whitehall police say 47-year-old Frederick Abercrombie was driving at least 100 miles an hour along East Broad Street when he lost control and crashed. Abercrombie died at the hospital Tuesday night.

The accident is tragic, but illegal street racing is not uncommon. While countless videos of street racing are available on the website, YouTube, Columbus Police Lieutenant Edward Devennish saw it for himself one day while off duty. “By the time I could get my cell phone on and call radio, people were disappearing,” he says. It's that short window of opportunity he says makes racing so hard to fight and track.

Columbus Police officials won't tell us where a majority of this street racing is happening, because they don't want to tip off those taking part, but they do say hot targets for street racers include roads with lighter traffic and straight-aways.

Devennish said officers keep an eye out for illegal street racing, but focus on an even deadlier issue, drunk driving. “I can recall within the last year one person killed out of a known street race, we have a whole lot of others that are killed, drunk driving for example is much worse problem,” he says.

Last year, officials with the state highway patrol say they issued 36 citations for illegal drag racing. That is a level one misdemeanor and being convicted of it could cost you up to a year behind bars.