At speeds over 100 mph, Durham County street racing now ‘intolerable’
The Durham County Sheriff’s Office is warning people against street racing, after citing 34 people for speeding last weekend, the fastest going a reported 97 mph.
“It saddens me to report a week does not go by (without) our deputies responding to individual residents and local neighborhood groups calling us for service about reports of loud, late-night ‘car meet-ups’ across Durham County,” Sheriff Clarence Birkhead said in a news release.
“This activity is not only illegal but obviously dangerous,” he said. “We are committed to getting a handle on this reckless behavior and will hold those individuals accountable.”
Participants can be cited for violating the state’s stay-at-home order and, in some cases, could lose their car and driver’s license, Birkhead said.
Complaints are coming in about racing throughout the county on N.C. 55, U.S. 70 and Interstate 85, and in parking lots, among other locations.
Sometimes those racing don’t even know one another, revving up at the sound of a car horn or traffic light turning green.
The Sheriff’s Office partnered with N.C. Highway Patrol in a speeding operation from 7:30 p.m. Saturday to 1:30 a.m. Sunday that resulted in 55 citations, four warnings, and two outstanding warrants served, the office said. The citations included:
34 - Speeding
10 - No operators license
1 - Failure to produce a license
1 - Illegal U-Turn
3 - Move Over violation
2 - Careless and reckless driving
1 - Flee to elude
1 - No insurance
1 - DWI
At excessive speeds, drivers can lose control of their car or have parts break, Deputy B. Teel said on a video posted on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. In some cases drivers have been traveling over 100 mph, he said.
“This is not worth their life,” Teel said. “Speeds that high can have fatal outcomes, and that’ not what we want.”
Less traffic enforcement
Police Chief C.J. Davis told the Durham City Council on Thursday that her department has also seen more reckless driving, possibly because police officers have been citing fewer people for violations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Those initial months, there was a complete lull,” she said. “I believe that environment, or the feeling of, you know, ‘There’s nobody out here pulling anybody over right now,’ it gives the green light to folks to be able to run red lights, drive recklessly.”
A total of 28 police officers tested positive for the coronavirus last year, and several squads were affected by quarantines, Davis said.
The police are stepping up enforcement now, she said, “because the noise and the racing has gotten to a point where it’s intolerable.”