With street racing related deaths on the rise across North America, governments and police forces are having to try new and drastic measures to combat the illegal and dangerous activity. On Wednesday in California, several known street racer’s rides were sent to the crusher to send a message to other racers that their hobby will not be tolerated.
Here in Ontario, a couple of loogans were “racing” on a major highway last weekend and caused a major accident which resulted in the death of a selfless truck driver who drove off the road rather than crash into the existing accident. The two that caused the incident have been charged under new street racing laws.
In response to this latest death, Toronto area police are lobbying to begin crushing street racer’s cars in a program similar to that in California. The difference is that in California, the cars crushed are those belonging to known, convicted street racers. Here in Toronto, the cops want to crush cars that are modified for street racing.
From the Toronto Star:
“Just on the balance of probabilities if we can establish that a car is being used for the unlawful purpose of street racing, we will seize it and you will never see it again.
“We will crush your car, we will crush the parts.”
Here is the problem: How are they going to determine if a car has been modified for street racing, or modified to improve vehicle handling, or modified for legitimate competition?
World wide, weekend warriors partake in legal, sanctioned motorsports events in their modified daily drivers. In most cases, these guys and girls drive like little old ladies on the street, because they have the opportunity to get their jollies out on the track. Many of these good folks are young adults, who may enjoy the same style of clothing and music as their street racing counterparts. How do the police intend to differentiate between the good and the bad, solely based on the modifications made to their cars?
Make no mistake, street racing needs to stop, but is it fair to paint with a wide brush just due to bolt on performance parts. In York Region, at Toronto’s north end, police have laid over 550 charges against street racers in the last 6 weeks. Why not begin crushing the cars that belong to those guys, who have already been caught. Then, suspend their driver’s license indefinitely. If they have no license, then they (hopefully) won’t be driving at all. Ever.
22 comments ↓
Even though I have my doubts it will do any good at the same time I have to take my hat off and salute them for trying to do something about what truly is a growing concern.
Could the modification not be as simple as Dad driving his M5, and little Bobby then getting the keys.
A family with an M3/M5/S4 etc in the driveway could be the cause of this as well, are the police going to crush those cars?
I agree they need to try something, though I feel this may be a tad too random.
As Mike points out, it could be as simple as the kid taking daddy’s toy.
Respectfully, I feel that’s a poor excuse. If a parent left his handguns laying around where anyone (including his own youngsters) could acquire them would that make it excusable. Of course not. That method of reasoning is in line with anti-gun fanatics who try to convince us all that every gun should be outlawed. The simple facts are “Everyone” needs to be held accountable beginning with the owner of whatever device is in question should it be cars or guns. Anyone who contends that a large group of today’s young drivers isn’t putting many others at risk is suffering from the head in the sand phenomena. Keep in mind I am not talking about anyone breaking a speed limit or even banging off 2nd gear. These kids have admitted to being repeat offenders and so the lack of respect for all of the above with their smart arsed comments. When I was a young man had my father found out I was that disrespectful he wouldn’t have waited for some court….. he would have crushed my car with his bulldozer and my head too.
I agree with you 100% on all counts. Where I have an issue is that in Ontario they are talking about a “it looks like a racer, so it must be a racer” approach.
Following that logic, your Viper or even Lucky could potentially be crushed, even though they have been modified for legitimate motorsports.
Well hell why didn’t you say so. Where’s my gun? (LOL)
I guess I better not take my Trabant on my next road trip thru Ontario.
With the lack of critical thinking that is evident they just may crush my “prized possession.”
Marc, Do you really own a Trabant? What a cool project.
Would they be able to see you through the accompanying haze?
I do not disagree with the concept once a person has been convicted. To seize and crush a car on the whim of some officer flies in the face of any democratic right. In the days of the Honda and GM series many cars were driven daily as well as raced. Judy’s Honda was clearly a race car complete with roll bar but it was her daily transportation. The only straight panel by the end of the year was the roof. Today many cars are still driven to the track and raced, both road racing and even more so in drag racing. I can forsee some rather large lawsuits when the wrong car is seized.
Nobody’s car is getting crushed because they are driving a flashy car and these incidents are not happening over night and for that reason nobody is going to sue anyone. The article says these cases are investigated and they are considered by the courts on a case by case basis and not by some patrolman who “assumed” someone was racing simply because they had an STP sticker on the bumper. It also says, Police need a court order to destroy the cars. They must prove that the serial or identification numbers on a vehicle or its parts are removed, altered or destroyed.
i have a 2006 s2000 stage 3 turbo and nitros. i drive it alot… yea so jus cuzz i have it and drive it, r they gonna crush it, that wat it sounds like, “if you have a nice car that does not look like a BOX, or a MOPED, its goin to be crushed
I live in toronto and have seen some street racing and althow it is illegal they do three thing before racing. 1 they make shure it’s in the late hours of the mourning. 2 they close the road before they race and 3 they make shure that it isn’t a heavaly used road. now I think that insted of crushing the cars they should use them as cop cars and to get the cars off the streets blid tracks just for tuner cars using the old airports or factory lottes becuase street racing is away of life and some poeple invest a lote of money and time into there cars and to just see them get crushed would be a wast. atleast thats what I think so if the police want to crush my car they can and I will sue them for every penny they have.
no street cars shouldnt be crushed they are cool to look at and they are other peoples way ofd transpoprtation if george bnush gets his head out of his butt and put 1 cop on each steet there wouldnt be street races
Man I Think that is messed up, you cant crush peoples cars. That it private property.If they actually had tracks for street racers like me and others, there wouldn’t be so many people racing.I have a bmw 525 i and i dont want it getting crushed just cus it looks like a racer. Its my show car. i put all my life savings into it and my sponsors would be pissed if it was crushed. Also crushing cars won’t solve crap. It will cause people to become very angry with the law and may cause riots, or they will juy buy another custom car off of ebay or something
I think it is stupid,because we put so much money into them. It is our right to modify our cars if we have the money. We choose to be different and have a car nobody else has. If we want to race, it’s our decision. We get hurt,we are reliable for our actions not the police!!!!! It is stated in the freedom of rights that we have the right to be individuals and express ourselves freely!!!!!
If they crush my 66 mustang or my 94 $80000 honda i will be issed and beat somebodys %%% if u nw what i mean i put ever dime in my cars thats how i express my self
thats messed up your right privetly owned property is yours not the goverments that would cause a riot think about it 11 million american citizenz out of that is not even a million cops duh…
this is a load of c*** man i have been street racing for 4 years i have 4 street racing cars. toyota celica(70000$)
dodge charger(85000$)
mazda rx-8(105000$)
nissan sentra(70000$)
if anyone creshed my cars i would be pis***
if theynare resorting to crushing cars because they look like street racers they are out of their minds
i know some dude that i just talked into street racing he has a toyota celica like me and he has the folowing upgrades..
vader2 bodykits, various neon, a turbo that dont work!!! and
a fake 200 shot nitrousall he did is make his car look cool
if they crush his car i will personally deal with the cops and i will GIVE him my nissan sentra.
his car is mostly fake he just made it look cool and his fake turbo is only robbing engine performance
this topic is insane
plus if cops ever drop in on one of my races they aint gunna catch me and they never had…
hope this encourages some of u to rebel
steve
Steve,
You obviously have a huge pile of income invested in your cars and take pride in them. Why do you choose to race on the street rather than in organized events?
I’m not at all trying to be argumentative, I’d like to know.
In a democratic society crushing modified street vehicles smacks of a police state. If you want to be fair about it, do not be an elietest police state. Crush any vehicle according to law that participates in a street race, or is obviously modified for full street racing or is a factory street race car. That way Mercedes AMG’s, Ferrari’s, Corvette Zo6’s and Bugatti Veyron’s would all be crushed along with the serf’s vehicles.
topic is bull racers dont get caught unless they’re punks.. real racers are smarter than that.. as for the cops.. they dont have a right.. and no one and i mean no one will touch my diablo.. and if they do then i’ll give them so much hell the devil himself will be jelous.. to all u officials watching the comments get over ur self u cant crush cars with out proof of street racing involvement it violates our constitutional rights.. so cops and every other car hater.. get the F*** over it catch the bad guys and leave us good guys alone
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