Street racing surges across US amid coronavirus pandemic tampabay.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tampabay.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Associated Press
New Mexico is now administering the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 to children ages 12 to 15, as state health officials pushed Thursday for more people to get vaccinated.
The move by the state Health Department follows authorizations this week by the federal Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The state is encouraging families to register children on its vaccine website.
The expanded availability applies only to the Pfizer vaccine, which until now was only available to people ages 16 and older. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are authorized for people 18 and older.
State officials say more than half of eligible residents are now considered fully vaccinated.
May 13, 2021 Share
Jaye Sanford, a 52-year-old mother of two, was driving home in suburban Atlanta on Nov. 21 when a man in a Dodge Challenger muscle car who was allegedly street racing crashed into her head-on, killing her.
Sanford was remembered by friends as kind and thoughtful, but now she will also be remembered for something else: a new state law that requires jail time for all convictions for drag racing and stunt driving.
Across America, illegal drag racing has exploded in popularity since the coronavirus pandemic began, with dangerous upticks reported from Georgia and New York to New Mexico and Oregon.
New York reported more than 1,000 drag racing complaints in a six-month timeframe in 2020. By Istock
Story at a glance
Illegal street racing cases are reportedly on the rise as streets emptied by the pandemic offer would be racers seemingly vacant spaces to race.
Cases apparently surged in New York, Georgia, New Mexico and Oregon, and several illegal street races led to the deaths of bystanders, officials have said. “Illegal street racing puts lives at risk and keeps us up at night,” Hoylman said. “While there’s been less traffic during the pandemic, some drivers have used this as an opportunity to treat our streets like a Nascar speedway,” New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman said.