Street Racer & Intersection Takeovers going to jail

[Music] well folks penalties for intersection takeovers just got more serious how serious we're gonna find out right after the break did you know that the average driver gets nine traffic tickets in their lifetime look i'll be the first to admit that i've taken maybe a couple of liberties with traffic laws back in the day and of course when i got caught i had to go to court to fight the ticket which was always a hassle and each time that i lost my case it meant big fines points on my record and higher insurance premiums eventually i realized that nothing beats having a good attorney argue your case in court so here's what you do you download the off the record app to your phone and register for an account and if you get a ticket simply upload a photo of your ticket into the app and you will be quickly matched with a lawyer in your jurisdiction your lawyer will start working your case right away and in most cases you'll never have to set foot in a courtroom off the record has a 97 success rate and a 4.9 star rating on google and guess what they even offer a money-back guarantee if they aren't able to reduce the points or keep that ticket fully off your record best of all i've arranged a 10 percent discount for all of my youtube viewers so download the app and register using the referral code fast life to receive 10 off your first case picture the scene two cars line up on a city street happens anywhere in the united states every night both drivers exchange knowing glances as they both wait for the traffic light to go green and we know what happens next as the light goes green each car rockets forward one of the cars loses traction at the top of second gear now doing 70 miles an hour and also moving it 102 feet per second spectators standing by the roadside don't have time to get out of the way and several are run down two of them died many more were injured scenes like this always make the tv news and have done so since at least the 1970s when i started hanging around cars police did everything they could to stop it back then and they're still doing what they can today but the problem continues to exist how why i think it's safe to say that most of us have probably engaged in some form of street racing or speed contest at least some point in our lives right or even if we're just riding shotgun with somebody or in the car they say that with age comes wisdom and restraint but as someone who has car friends of all ages i try to warn people of the dangers and the risks involved but i know darn well that the temptation is very hard to resist for a lot of young people i get it i was young once believe it or not many years ago it used to be that street races took place in deserted industrial complexes in the middle of the night that's the way it was generally done sometimes the cops would come by and watch and sometimes they would break it up people seemed to be smarter back then in retrospect because no one was dumb enough to stand or park past the starting line knowing full well that if something went wrong during the race those cars might go out of control and might crash into their nice car or hit hit a bunch of people and someone would get hurt or even worse killed oftentimes the cops would roll up hit the lights and the racers would just disperse sometimes they would call it a night or sometimes they would go 30 miles away to do it somewhere else but they weren't staying in an institution for an hour today it's totally different not only are cars blocking intersections and the participants are running around but people are running into the path of these swinging cars we've all seen people being tossed around like rag dolls after being hit and while it's funny on camera we have to remember that somebody is getting hurt and that's not cool none of this makes sense to og's in my age bracket even more shocking is that people are filming and posting this illegal activity while participants license plate numbers are in full view of the camera and some of these people even have their instagram handle posted proudly on the side of the car or other identifying decals giant l.a dodgers sign how what intersection takeovers have become a blight on the automotive hobby giving all automotive hobbyists a bad name these takeovers are flagrantly promoted all over social media for the world to see there have been thousands of injuries and dozens of deaths at these events over the last several years most people know that street racing is and has been illegal for more than 60 years even watching a street race in the eyes of the law is almost as bad and will often get your car towed and you'll be slapped with big fines street racing or facilitating a street rate or spectating at street races is illegal and has been for a long time especially here in california it's punishable by up to 90 days in county jail and a fine of up to a thousand bucks but penalties can vary depending on the criminal histories of the people involved or other charges that the facts of the case will present to the prosecutors california law defines a street race as a speed contest under vehicle code cbc 231098 if you have been accused of willfully engaging in a speed contest prosecutors will need to prove four important elements to show you were guilty first they would have to prove that you were a participant in a motor vehicle race second they'll have to prove that this event took place on a highway three that you willfully engaged and four that the race was against another motorist or some kind of clock or timing measurement device for the purposes of the california vehicle code a highway is any publicly maintained roadway open to the public for the purposes of vehicular travel this means that this law most commonly applies to interstate highways state highways and public roads it does not apply to parking lots private roads or any roads that are not normally open to the public example mike owns a skateboard shop after closing time he invites steve over to drag race in the parking lot behind his shop because this occurred on private property this is likely was not considered to be willful engagement in the speed contest but mike and steve could still be guilty of other crimes like vandalism the parking lot owner that kind of thing the last element that a prosecutor would need to show is that you were competing in a speed contest directly against another motorist or that you were being timed road rallies some of these world rallies where you have timing measurements right generally speaking the sentence in california for the first offense of street racing looks something like this first you might go to county jail for 24 hours and up to 90 days for street racing a fine between 355 bucks and a thousand bucks you might get 40 hours of community service you probably have your license suspended for a period of maybe 90 days and six months your car will probably get impounded and every day is like 150 bucks per day of fees so you have to pay that at your own pocket and if you have a prior conviction for street racing in the last five years and someone was injured in this race you could face what's called enhanced penalties and this work gets serious for someone with a prior street racing conviction penalties increase to a county jail sentence between four days and six months a fine between five hundred and thousand bucks mandatory suspension of your driver's license for at least six months and at the speed contest cost injury to another person penalties increase to a county jail sentence between one month and six months so you're going into slammer baby a fine between 500 000 bucks then if the race caused a serious bodily injury as defined by california state law something like a concussion a loss of consciousness a bone fracture this could be treated as a felony based on the prosecutor's discretion in that case penalties can range as high as up jail time to up to three years fines up to ten thousand dollars that's some serious stuff earlier this year the city of santa ana narrowly approved an ordinance that would make it illegal to be knowingly present as a spectator at a street takeover event those spectators within 200 feet of an event could be given a thousand dollar fine it could be subject to a maximum of six months in jail what are you in for bro i was watching cars race really okay after that you can expect your car insurance to triple if you're convicted of a street racing infraction i have a friend who bought a new car in 2018 and because his credit wasn't all that great he took out a car loan for an eight-year term his car payment was over 900 a month after his second street racing conviction with that car his car insurance went from three thousand one hundred dollars to six thousand nine hundred eighty dollars for the year bringing his insurance payment to 583 dollars a month what happened he had to sell his car and now he's stuck with a girlfriend he doesn't really like because she'll drive him just dumb ass to work every day consequences buddy tried to tell you don't listen to whatever police and even our liberal catch and release politicians here in the people's republic of california are getting freaking fed up with it all of it other states are getting fed up too texas for example has just enacted a law that will allow them to seize your car even if you are still making payments on it and auction it off or even use it as an undercover card to catch other street racers and if you don't pay off that loan even though car was seized your credit is ruined for seven years so for decades street racers have tried justifying their actions sometimes asserting that uh what was the old agreement oh there aren't enough race tracks bro well this same argument was used when back when i was growing up back in the 1970s back when we already had lions drag right here in wilmington california terminal island drag strip in san pedro lacr in palmdale riverside drag race ramona drag strip in san diego ontario motor speedway irwindale had a strip orange county international raceway still existed and still illegal street racing was still a problem there'll never be enough tracks a friend of mine said well now most of those tracks are gone what are we supposed to do the government should build more race tracks for us to go to really if i were a scuba diver fan and i lived in the middle of oklahoma would i be right to demand that the state of oklahoma should buy some land dig a giant hole and put a tropical rural reef in it for me right a more realistic scenario i used to be into rc cars one of the country's best rc tracks was a quarter mile from my old house when the track got shut down i gave up rc cars because i was unwilling to drive 40 miles one way to get to another world-class rc track i didn't go out and take over an intersection start racing my cars but going back to the original assertion that the government should build a racetrack is just absurd and unrealistic it's completely naive the government all governments get their money from taxes do you think your parents will want to pay higher property taxes just so they can have a noisy race track in their neighborhood should every citizen driving on the road have to pay more per gallon at the pump just so a relatively tiny percentage of the population can have more race tracks that they probably aren't going to use in the first place again asking the government to pay for racetracks to appease a few is just like asking the government for a taxpayer-funded brothel for sex addicts or setting up a stadium so people can go shoot heroin you have to expect some opposition right the other thing to consider is that there's virtually no race track that will elect two or more race cars do donuts in a small space while pedestrians run in between the cars just so that they can get photos for their gram come on man it's not going to happen no one will take the liability further we know from reports that many people at intersection takers show up with no driver's license some have expired registration and some have no insurance and race tracks are going to require at least two of those things usually at most race tracks you at the very least you need to show your license and at the very least you'll have to have a car pass your safety inspection and a lot of those cars that go to street takeovers will not pass any expectation so ridiculous of arguments aside the the hard truth is that many people just don't want to go to a racetrack at all all they want to do is just swing their whips for the gram and they don't think about the consequences about doing it on the street i get it we were all young ones there are still a number of race tracks in southern california now on drag race nights there's a good number of cars that show up and that makes me happy those people are doing god's work unfortunately no amount of fun drag racing will satisfy the appetite of swingers who care only about the smoke show look i was young once believe it or not i went to the street races a few times myself probably six or eight times but i remember that we never blocked off active roadways we never stood in dangerous areas and we sure as hell didn't run between moving cars and that's when cars were much slower than they are today were we smarter i don't know and of course we never filmed those activities and posted them online well mainly because video cameras were giant 20 pound bricks and there was no internet or social media to post them on and of course we never put our names on the side of archives like some of these people are doing i'm talking about all these things to give people an understanding of both sides of the issue on one side there are the swingers they're fans and followers who just want to see a show many of the followers and spectators stand far away from all the action and they just go for the thrill they don't think they're hurting anybody right the other side is comprised of government officials law enforcement and parents of young people who have died in street racing events or intersection takeovers and you can see why there's not going to be much of an agreement you've all seen the news reports of these events there was one where one guy was hanging on the side of a pickup truck that flipped on it to its side and the guy got killed then the truck was driven by his own cousin one guy is in jail one guy dead for ignoring the laws of physics and a family it just torn apart sad and everybody says well it's never going to happen to me well well well yeah it's happened to a lot of people i know not me but a lot of people and just two weeks ago there was a street racing crash in burbank i don't know if you've ever been in burbank but it's not a drag strip one of them was the son of famous comedian tony baker the driver of the kia has been charged with three counts of murder not just speeding or reckless driving murder his bail is set at six million bucks four families grieving because some dude in ikea wanted a race akia really what are you people doing yes i know all about kill your stingers so don't dm me i'd hate to have to tell my cell mate in prison that i got busted for street racing ikea in 2008 eight people were killed while standing in the middle of the road on route 210 in maryland one of the racers was driving with no headlights and he slammed into the crowd one of the victim was literally torn to pieces so much so that they had nothing to bury horrible and cops around the country have had enough in florida california and texas new initiatives are being implemented to crack down in a big way a chp friend of mine that i've known for about 30 years or so told me this candidly it's the flagrant manner in which people promote their events and share their footage on social media that could land people like these in jail for being the organizer and these people need to watch out this one guy right here his ig handle is atl moon riders the dude has five open cases already can you imagine getting a felony conviction for organizing street racing events any street racing felony of conviction will be stapled to every job application you submit for the rest of your life is it really worth it can you imagine that oh we were going to hire for this great job but i see you have a street racing conviction a felony street racing conviction uh yeah we have a janitor positioned open for you oh yeah that's minimum wage yeah that doesn't scare people perhaps the thought of having their cars seized and crushed by the state even though you still owe payments on the car maybe that will shake people back to reality that's coming as well it was tried in the 80s it worked very well and then politicians changed their mind blah blah blah the stiffer penalties will probably deter some people but there will always be people who are openly defiant and so for those people state and country governments are stepping in with more restrictions the government agencies around the world are planning big things there's talk of factory installed breathalyzers being mandated in all cars by 2027 that means you will not be able to start your car unless you can prove that you're not you haven't had a drink that's assuming everybody's guilty but it's coming we know what's coming next you can expect built-in speed monitors and built-in speed limiters not long after that why because governments around the world are slowly moving towards controlling every aspect of your life it's happening everywhere the european union will be mandating speed limiters in cars starting next year 2022. you heard that right speed limiter the speed limiter technology is called intelligent speed assistance and it uses gps data and or traffic sign recognition cameras to determine the maximum speed allowed in any given area then the system will limit the engine's power and vehicle speed to that limit this means also if you're paying attention that the government will know when you're speeding and where you're speeding anywhere making it now possible to send you a speeding ticket in the mail if they choose to go that route what you know they will for the interim you'll be able to override the system by pressing hard on the accelerator but the system will reactivate every time the car is started however the speed limiter will send haptic mean motion audio and visual warnings until you start driving with the speed limit that's like having a nagging wife sitting next to you slow down slow down slow down so sad that she's slapping you the whole time i look forward to that we all know that at some point the governments of the world will limit your car speed to 40 miles per hour in a 40 mile per hour zone and so on and there'll be nothing you can do about it so freedoms are slowly being eroded around the world but before they're all gone street racers and intersection takeovers will only speed up the process and give politicians all the more reason to take our freedoms away so thanks for that do it attract people please for the love of god that's going to be it for this time everybody thanks so much for watching we'll catch another time you

Channel: Craig Lieberman

Views: 45,085

Rating: 4.8790698 out of 5

Keywords: Intersection takeover, street racing, street racing crashes, racing

Id: cuJ5Ytk6zBk

Length: 17min 41sec (1061 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 09 2021