New Ohio Streetracing law

wbjones wrote:

loudes13 wrote:

wbjones wrote:

loudes13 wrote: Is "streetracing" such a horrible crime? Don't dumb kids always find ways to take themselves out anyway?

ya I'd say it is since as often as not they take out one of us old farts that just happen to be on the same road at just the wrong time...

Statistically that's false. Single vehicle accidents FAR out rank multiple vehicle collisions when reckless driving, racing, or extreme speeding is involved. When you were 16, did you drive crazy on main street or out in the boonies?

you may well be right ... statistically... but when a couple of street racers plow into a large crowd, be they spectators or non involved bystanders then yes "streetracing" is truly a horrible crime.. and yes I did most of my dumb a$$ driving stunts out in the boonies... and in my case it was usually by myself... thank heavens there never was a car coming around that blind curve while I was trying to learn to control my car while doing stupid things..

Has that happened in your community? Is it really a problem or are you hypothesizing?

Passing laws to prevent stupidity never works as intentioned. Every state already has laws against vehicular homicide, reckless, speeding, etc. If some kid plows into a crowd, prosecute him for it. Why bother having additional 'street racing' laws.

Ultimately these laws just allow LEO's and DA's to improperly prosecute regular Joe's that accelerate fast from a stop light. Plowing into a crowd is FAR different than the simple stop light gran prix, yet do gooders treat them as the same thing.

Zombie Canoe

Be damned if we didn't beat this one

Just did some follow up after the thread resurfaced and wooot

"Some New Good News from Ben Stillman of the Ohio Riders

Big Al

The drag racing bill has pretty much already been taken care of:

http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText128/128_HB_191_PH_N.html

We had a huge email rally, sending emails to every Ohio senator and representative every day. I think they got the point. It was all organized on www.ColumbusRacing.com and www.Ohio-Riders.com. IPS Motorsports contacted several senators/representatives discussing the negative consequences of that bill to small businesses in the area. That petition you linked to was actually started by a Columbus Racing member. George Staton, the guy who crossed the median and hit Monica Durban, was a long time Columbus Racing member. Drag racing had nothing to do with that accident. It's a horrible shame, and I wish Monica Durban all the best, but there's no reason to use auto enthusiasts as the scapegoats. Anyways, just thought I'd pass along that info. Ben Stillman"

Vigo wrote: We got some of that down here in Texas... but i suppose ridiculous fines for things im not likely to get caught at are better than getting nickel and dimed to death when cash-strapped localities discover they can sell taxpayer-built road infrastructure to toll road companies with 50-year contracts.

^^ this

I used to live in Italy. While there is near 0% chance that you are going to get stopped by a cop while driving, you notice real soon that if you try to cover any distance on autostradas (what we call interstate) you are faced with one toll after another. They are not cheap tolls either.

It's just one form of revenue collection vs. another. I'm with Vigo. I'd rather take my chances with asshat cops than pay through the nose every time I use the road.

My fear is that here in the US we are soon going to get both the tolls AND the cops.

this thread is over a year old.....

which is why I searched after it resurfaced..duh

wearymicrobe wrote:

aussiesmg wrote: I am starting to see a need for civilian cars to have a video system similar to the police cars. The small town cops around here will abuse this, they already have too much time to basically roust any kid who crosses their path.

This can get you in major trouble in two party consent states. I know that cops were arresting and charging citizens with illegal wiretapping for recording there antics on cell phones.

I forget which state it was, Maryland maybe, but there was a case where a 2 party consent state had a cop arrest a man for videotaping him in a traffic stop. The case went to court, and the judge ruled that cops are public servants and cannot expect any amount of privacy while doing their berkeleying job in a public place.

D'oh, realized after posting that I was replying to a year old post.

I think all the cell phone videos coming out of Wisconsin and other areas of high political unrest has put videoing public servants at work into common practice nowadays