Evo Street Racers: Street Racing Accidents

Two charged in fatal racing accident

Source: My Central Jersey
Date: August 12, 2008
Author: Joshua Burd

Buzz up! UNION COUNTY —Two Springfield men surrendered to authorities yesterday after facing charges for leaving the scene of a fatal street-racing accident in Mountainside that killed two men last year, authorities announced today.

John Mannarino, 19, was indicted last week on charges of leaving the scene of a fatal accident and hindering apprehension, Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow said. James Cavallaro, 21, was indicted on one count of hindering apprehension.

New Providence resident Konstantinos Potouridis, 18, and Paul Carbone, 20, of Millburn were pronounced dead at the scene after the July 10, 2007 accident on Route 22 east in Mountainside.

Mannarino, with Cavallaro as a passenger, was allegedly driving a 1994 Chevrolet Corvette and was racing against a 1994 Chevrolet Camaro driven by Potouridis.

Romankow said the drivers were conducting what is called a 5-to-90 race: The drivers begin with a rolling start, and after one honks three times, both cars accelerate until the first one reaches 90 miles per hour.

With Carbone as a passenger, Potouridis briefly lost control of his car in the right lane and entered the left lane before hitting a telephone pole. The car landed in a culvert several feet from the roadway, Romankow said.

Mannarino and Cavallaro immediately fled the scene and attempted to conceal the Corvette, he said. They later returned to the scene with friends in a different vehicle.

The two surrendered on Monday afternoon. Mannarino was released on $20,000 bail and Cavallaro on $5,000 bail.

More than 800 people were killed in street-racing related crashes between 2001 and 2006, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics provided by the prosecutor's office.

Street-racing fatalities are on the rise again after a decline in the first half of the
decade, climbing 35 percent from 111 deaths in 2005 to 150 in 2006.