In pop culture, drag racing had given us idiotically romantic
images like James Dean in his Porsche 356 Speedster bolting down an
empty California Highway. And also cheeseball ones: think John
Travolta driving his Greased Lightnin’.
The reality is more grubby and sometimes decidedly unfunny. In
my hometown in the Hudson Valley, one racer bought and customized
his Honda Civic with the wages he scooped up at a Carvel ice cream
shop. Another outfitted his Audi with the loudest speakers in
Putnam County.
On Saturday nights they would get together with dozens of
others, listen to police scanners, and race near a dairy in
Danbury, Connecticut. It was loud, dangerous, vulgar, and exciting
as hell.
The chaos and clamor hid something dangerous early last Saturday
morning — a quiet Ford Crown Victoria. On a stretch of highway 210
in Accokeek Maryland, southeast of Washington D.C., eight
drag-racing spectators were killed as they stepped onto the highway
following a race.
The Crown Vic emerged from the smoke that the racers had kicked
up and plowed into the crowd, killing seven almost instantly and
severely injuring half a dozen others.
The victims would not be cast in any modern Hollywood drag-film.
Only one, Maycol Lopez would fit the amateur’s profile of a
street-racing fan, being just 20 years old. The others were
middle-aged men, from ages 35 to 61. The crowd even included
families.
Crystal Gaines was lucky to pull her daughter out of the road
before the accident occurred, only to see her father be pulled
under the speeding sedan. “I hollered, ‘Daddy, Daddy!”’ Gaines
recounted to reporters.
THE ACCOUNTS OF the 3 a.m. street race are confusing and macabre.
Reports put the number of spectators everywhere from 15 to 200. The
Crown Vic landed in an embankment, with one of its victims lodged
inside. The 50-foot stretch of Indian Head highway was covered in
skid marks, sneakers, and bodies until morning. The skid marks
remain; residents have now placed flowers where the debris once
lay.
Street racing is a misdemeanor in Maryland, and typically
carries a $290 fine and up to five points on a driver’s license.
Other participants — organizers, timekeepers, etc — are subject
to the same penalties.
With penalties so light, and so rarely enforced street racing
has remained popular in the area. Stan Fetter, president of the
Indian Head Highway Area Council, told reporters that it had been
common in Accokeek for at least 20 years.
Typically legislators and lawyers overreacted. Asked whether
manslaughter charges could be leveled against the street racers,
Robert Bonsib, a lawyer who previously served both a Prince
George’s County and federal prosecutor, pushed the envelope even
further. He said that most of the spectators “were there
to encourage and participate in drag racing. Where criminal
liability might go is a valid question.”
Legislators now tell reporters they will consider making
Maryland’s laws more explicit on the responsibility of
street-racers for all crimes and accidents that occur around their
races.
But neither increased penalties nor the recent bloodbath is
likely to stop drag racing. Local Richard Savoy Jr. was visiting
the scene of the accident when he told the Baltimore Sun,
“This is a tragedy I thought I’d never see in a race. Not like
this.”
He watched the races 20 years, and expects others will be
watching them again: “There will be a lull, but I give them a
month. Then they’re going to be back out here.”
