Street Racing, Deadly Statistics?

With the increasing popularity of import cars, such as the Honda Civic, Toyota Celica, and Subaru WRX, the young crowd that buys these cars is starting an import movement or fever. These youngster are building these “race cars” out of their small lightweight civics, and producing enough power to take down the quarter mile (1320 feet) in 12, 11, 10 and even less seconds with completely street legal car at speed very well over 100mph. For those who do not know how fast this is, a Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale does the quarter mile in around 12.1 seconds, and a Lamborghini Murcielago in around 11.7 seconds. Now the problem with all this is that along side the growing of this import racing fever so is street racing.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) the number of deadly car crashes due to street racing is increasing every year. In 2001 they increased by 87%, going from 72 (2000) to 135 (2001). In San Diego they increased from 161 (2000) to 290 (2001). In Florida street racing injuries went up by 222% from 1999 to 2001. Reports show motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause for death for people between 16 and 20. Nationwide statistics show that 49 people are injured for every 1,000 who participate in illegal street racing. Which means the probability for you to be injured while street racing is of 4.9%. If you ask my personal opinion, i would rather see it as a 95.1% chance of living, and showing the other guy some respect.

For more information please visit:
http://www.nhra.com/streetlegal/stats.html
http://www.partsamerica.com/MotorsportsRaceTrackProgram.asp
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/