Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Problem of teen street racing continues

A North Las Vegas teen who got into an impromptu drag race in front of Cheyenne High School after a party was seriously injured early Thursday after he lost control of his car, police said.

The 16-year-old driver and his 15-year-old passenger were both ejected from the gold 2002 Nissan shortly after midnight. The teens were not identified by police because of their ages. Neither was wearing a seat belt, North Las Vegas Sgt. Jerry Hamilton said.

The driver suffered head injuries and was in serious but stable condition Thursday afternoon at University Medical Center, police said. His passenger suffered minor injuries.

The accident was just the latest example of the area's street racing problem, Hamilton said.

"It occurs all over the valley," Hamilton said.

On June 13 in Las Vegas, two racers hit and killed an 18-year-old bicyclist who was in a crosswalk on Karen Avenue near Malibu Street. In North Las Vegas street racing has been at the root of three fatal accidents in the past year, authorities said.

In Thursday's case, drinking, racing and a failure to wear seat belts created a nearly deadly combination, he said.

The two teens were attending a party at another teen's house, Hamilton said. After they left the party, they got into a race with two teens in a 2000 Infiniti, he said. Both cars were eastbound on Alexander Road west of Simmons Avenue.

When they got to Simmons, they were racing head-on toward an off-duty police officer, who pulled his car to the side of the road to avoid a collision. The Infiniti managed to stop, but the Nissan blew through the stop sign at about 80 mph, overcorrected and went out of control, Hamilton said. It slid into a vacant lot, where it turned over, he said.

"We're lucky someone wasn't coming through that intersection," Hamilton said. "The direction they were coming from, it's a blind intersection."

An investigation into the crash is continuing and charges are pending, Hamilton said, though he added, "we know for a fact there was alcohol involved."

"They were doing everything you can imagine you don't want your kid to do when it comes to getting into a vehicle," he said. "They had been drinking, were racing and being totally foolish."

The stretch of road in front of Cheyenne looks like a perfect drag strip at first glance. The road is five lanes wide, straight as an arrow, and flanked by large walls on both sides.

But that section of Alexander Road is rife with potential for disaster, area residents said.

Hamilton said racing is most likely to occur around high schools. In addition to Cheyenne High School, however, the mile-long stretch of Alexander where the teens were racing Thursday also fronts the Richard C. Priest Elementary School, a church and the Silver Mesa Recreation Center, where children congregate to use the athletic facilities and activity pool.

For all that, there is just one stoplight and one stop sign. Jeff Smith, a recreation programmer at Silver Mesa, said he often sees high school students racing each other from one stopping point to the next.

"You can actually sit at the stop sign and watch them burn out," he said.

Smith said the races on Alexander Road are usually spontaneous, not like the events in other parts of town where crowds of spectators turn out to watch scheduled showdowns.

"There's never any grandstanding or anything," he said. The cars are usually factory-equipped Camaros, Mustangs or Civics, not customized racers.

But that doesn't mean the contests aren't dangerous, Smith said.

"You've got a lot of kids walking around out here, and that's what makes us nervous," he said. "You've also got the senior community across the street, and they do a lot of walking."

Such racing is most prevalent among drivers ages 15 to 26 years old, he said, and the city's growth fuels it, Hamilton said.

"One of the problems is the city is growing so rapidly that there are always new areas with large open areas pavement, and it's ripe for racing," he said.

Jose Montoya, spokesperson for Metro Police, said the department saw illegal racing activity in the southwest part of town near commercial areas but special enforcement has decreased the activity.

Metro Police Lt. Randy Montandon said the southwest saw "substantial" problems with street racing last year and they have used special enforcement programs to try to stop it.

Montoya said that includes police identifying the drivers involved, dispersing the crowds that accumulate and following the racers to different locations.

Shane Lewis, spokesman for Henderson Police Department, said one area on the south edge of Henderson near Wagonwheel Drive had a similar problem, but special enforcement has curtailed the activity, he said.

Henderson Police have seen no fatalities or serious injuries from street racing, he said.

Hamilton said the North Las Vegas department also targets street racing.

"We had a couple of operations where we knew street racing was going to occur and broke it up," he said. "If we know in advance we try to put a stop to it."

Smith, of Silver Mesa, said that ramped-up law enforcement efforts have helped in recent years, but issuing tickets doesn't seem to have solved the problem. He worries that it will take a tragedy to get the community to take it seriously.

"I think once you get one kid wrapped around a pole, we'll start talking about it a lot," he said.

In an effort to curb illegal street racing the Las Vegas Motor Speedway began Midnight Mayhem, a program that allows drivers to use the Speedway to race.

John Bisci, Las Vegas Motor Speedway spokesman, said the environment is meant to duplicate that of an illegal race.

"It's as close to an illegal race as you can get," he said.

Since the program started last year its popularity has continued to grow, he said. The average nightly attendance this summer is 2,500, Bisci said, with roughly 300 cars participating each night.

There are three Midnight Mayhem events this month, on Aug. 8, 15 and 29.

But don't expect such programs to eliminate illegal racing, he said.

"It's impacted it but will never stop it," Bisci said. "You get a certain thrill with illegal racing that we can't replace."

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