Street racers on Houghton: “God forbid that they kill anyone.”
By Craig Smith
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TUCSON, Arizona (KGUN) — If you’re on the wrong road at the wrong time of night you’ll see them: street racers who care more about thrills than your safety. In KGUN9’s Operation Safe Roads program, we’re hearing from people who say Houghton’s become their neighborhood raceway.
Street racers have been turning up just about any place there is room to race.
And that certainly goes for the wide, smooth stretches of Houghton. There is no one area of Houghton defined as a hot spot for racing. That goes for any one of the wide range of roads where the dangerous drivers could appear. More important than location is timing. Racers are much more likely to speed after dark and on weekends.
The noise is a nuisance for the people who live near the road.
For Chris Hall the danger is enough to keep him off Houghton when the fast drivers are on it.
He says, “I’m not doing any errands after Nine o’clock. I mean, there’s just no point.”
KGUN reporter Craig Smith asked: “What would you say to these guys, if you could?”
Hall: “I would tell them to think about what if what if your family is in the neighborhood? God forbid that they kill anybody. What would happen if it was one of their family members driving on the same street?”
Sharon Wadginski says Nine o’clock is about when she hears the fast cars too.“I don’t like to drive at night anyway. So yeah, it would concern me and coming home from my son’s at night like I would not want to be in front of one of them or….”
Craig Smith: “Does it surprise you that they seem to do it with relative impunity?
Wadginski: “Yes and disregard for human life. Usually they’re not the ones that get hurt. It’s somebody else.
People we talked to say they understand Tucson Police are stretched thin but they’re frustrated the speeders and racers just keep roaring on.
Dave remembers calling 911.
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, you can hear them.’ You’re coming by. And it seems, ‘Oh, we’ll get someone out there’ and then maybe 30-40 minutes later TPD will drive by the area but by that time they’re gone.”
TPD says it is serious about traffic enforcement and has units that specialize in it. TPD says its officers have teamed up with Sheriff’s Deputies on coordinated crackdowns. Officers say penalties are stiff for street racing and can even let police confiscate a racer’s car.
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