Evo is featured on WPRI Fox Dangerous Game: Illegal Street Racing

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Evo is featured in WPRI Fox Dangerous Game: Illegal Street Racing

Source: Evo Communications Dept.
Date: May 19, 2010
Update / Revision: None

Education can act as the power to create consensus. Without consensus uniform action to remedy a problem cannot be taken. As illegal street racing requires a comprehensive solution general agreement on critical areas must be achieved prior to moving forward. The article written by Tim White of WPRI Fox in Providence Rhode Island is amongst one of the first published documents that discusses a few critical areas with widespread agreement between critical decision makers.

Rhode Island District attorney representative agrees with Evo Street Racers in the area of law enforcement:

Though Rhode Island does have legislation that makes racing on public streets illegal, Harrison, who has worked with law enforcement across the country, said it is often difficult to bust racers.

"Unless an officer has a specific knowledge that it may be related to illegal street racing, it is very, very hard to track," he said.

Mike Healey, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch agreed. Often Officers charge suspected street racers with "Driving to Endanger" because they simply don't catch them in the act, he said.

Current National Illegal Street Racing statistics is proven inaccurate in Rhode Island:

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 1,047 people have died in illegal street racing crashes between 2001 and 2008. Ten have died in Rhode Island during the same stretch.

But Harrison said those numbers are "grossly inaccurate." His website points out many police departments simply don't have a way to track street racing because there's no option for it on citations. Plus there's little or no consistency in defining street racing between agencies, undermining a national epidemic, according to Harrison.

In fact, the 2006 triple fatal crash on Ernest Street is not reflected in the numbers provided to Target 12 by the NHTSA.

Law Enforcement cannot act as the only and primary method of reducing the problem:

Target 12 took the undercover video to Providence Police Sergeant Paul Zienowicz who runs the department's Traffic Division.

"I would say that they are very organized," Zienowicz said. "I know in the past that they have had spotters looking out for us. It was counterintelligence, so to speak."

Street Racing experts tell Eyewitness News many of the cars aren't just modified for speed, but they often come with police scanners to monitor radio traffic.

Zienowicz said he suspects these racers decided to pull off a match at 2 a.m., because they know the police are busy elsewhere at that time.

Our resources are strained to the limit with nightclubs breaking up in the downtown area, and around the city," he said.

A push for equality of similar crimes:

"We correspond illegal street racing on the same level of drunk driving on the basis of how detrimental it is to society and how courts should start treating it," Harrison said.

"Unfortunately drunk driving is as simple as taking a breathalyzer test, illegal street racing is something that isn't quantitative and it’s up to an officer's discretion."