U S cities see surge in deadly street racing amid pandemic durangoherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from durangoherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Then shutdowns associated with the pandemic cleared normally clogged highways as commuters worked from home.
Those with a passion for fast cars often had time to modify them, and to show them off, said Tami Eggleston, a sports psychologist who participates in legal drag racing.
“With COVID, when we were separated from people, I think people sort of bonded in their interest groups,” said Eggleston, who is also the provost of McKendree University, a small college in suburban St. Louis. “So that need to want to socialize and be around other people brought the racers out.”
But people have been killed. The snarl of engines and traffic tie-ups have become huge annoyances. Racers have been reported wielding guns and strewing beer cans in parking lots.
Andrew Selsky
Street racers gather the evening of Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018, in the parking lot of the Goodwill on Northeast Marine Drive and 122nd Avenue in Portland, Ore. Across America, police are confronting illegal drag racing whose popularity has surged since the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns began. Drivers have blocked off roads to race and to etch donut patterns on pavement with the tires of their souped-up cars. From Portland, Oregon; to Albuquerque, New Mexico; from Nashville, Tennessee; to New York City, officials are reporting a dangerous, and sometimes deadly, uptick in street racing.(Anna Spoerre /The Oregonian via AP) May 13, 2021 - 7:51 PM
Street racing surges across US
Street racers gather the evening in a parking lot in Portland, Ore. Across America, police are confronting illegal drag racing whose popularity has surged since the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns began. Anna Spoerre
Colorado State Patrol Trooper Josh Lewis fist bumps 3-year-old Lincoln Delagarza, of Northglenn, Colorado, before racing begins at Bandimere Speedway west of Denver on May 5, 2021. The State Patrol runs a program called Take it to the Track in hopes of luring racers away from public areas to a safer and more controlled environment, even allowing participants to race a trooper driving a patrol car. The program s goals have gained new importance and urgency this year as illegal street. Thomas Peipert