Source:
Practice Claims 13 Lives This Year
Copyright: NBC 7/39
San Diego, CA - City Cracks Down On Illegal Racing
George Waller's souped-up Plymouth Barracuda was ready for wild rides.
The 1968 muscle car had an advanced ignition system to deliver more speed. Gauges measured how fast the wheels were spinning, police said, and the seats had even been replaced with lighter-weight versions to keep the car lean and mean.
Prosecutors allege that Waller was racing another car along a residential street when he slammed the Barracuda into Shanna Jump's tiny Geo Storm on the evening of Oct. 6.
The impact cut the compact car nearly in half. Jump and her boyfriend, Brian Hanson, both teenagers, became this year's 12th and 13th victims to die as the result of illegal street races in San Diego County, police said.
Waller, 32, was seriously injured in the crash. He was arraigned in his hospital bed and pleaded innocent to the county's first-ever murder charges filed in connection with an alleged drag race. The slew of fatalities this year has officials cracking down on illegal racers.
"This is a racing car, that's what it is," Deputy District Attorney Blaine Bowman said about the Barracuda. "It's unusual anytime to charge a driver with murder. But there are some cases that are so egregious, such as this one, where the murder charge is warranted."
Illegal racing is not confined to San Diego. Authorities in Oakland, Bakersfield, Los Angeles, Ontario, Sacramento and San Jose are also struggling to keep racers off the street. But few police departments outside San Diego keep detailed statistics on the problem.
"We've probably got the highest number of documented deaths due to racing," said San Diego police Sgt. Greg Sloan of the Drag-Net unit, which trains local authorities to detect signs of racing at crash scenes. "The only problem is we are the only ones documenting racing deaths."
The Police Department is the only one in the nation to include a full-time undercover unit to investigate illegal racing. With the help of a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, the city formed the Drag-Net unit last year to deploy undercover officers at race sites where hundreds of people converge on weekend nights.
San Diego officials are trying to combat the problem in a number of other ways.
Drivers are urged to take their fast cars to the legal racing venue at Qualcomm Stadium, where the number of officially sanctioned speed contests has been increased. Officials also are working to identify new legal race sites.
After the deaths of Jump and Hanson, who were not involved in racing, the City Council passed an emergency ordinance targeting spectators at illegal races. The misdemeanor crime is punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Similar spectator bans have been enacted in Los Angeles and the city of Ontario, other hotbeds of street racing.
"It gives us a good tool to use as a deterrent," said Officer Jeff Higbee of the Ontario Police Department, where authorities have arrested more than 500 fans since the law was passed a year ago. The ranks of racers and spectators have dropped sharply over that time, he said.
In San Diego, the numbers have dropped from an estimated 1,200 spectators and 120 racers in November 2001 to about 100 spectators and 20 cars in October 2002, Sloan said.
"For a long time the city of San Diego was the place to race," he said. "We've got the best tracks, the best streets and the best congregation of cars. It is no longer the place to go. It's the place to run away from."
Statistics show the high risk of the sport. For every 1,000 people who illegally race, 39 are killed or seriously injured, according to Stephen Bender, a professor of public health at California State University, San Diego and principal investigator of racelegal.com, the region's legal racing organization.
"In my 35 years of public health practice I have never seen a public health problem of greater magnitude," he said.
Unlike others killed in races this year, Jump and Hanson, both 19, had nothing to do with the sport. The El Cajon couple was taking Hanson's younger brother Michael to his mother's house when the crash occurred.
Authorities said Waller, a school janitor and father of two, had chosen his course carefully. The distance from one intersection to the next was nearly a quarter-mile long -- the distance of choice for drag racers.
It was down this stretch that Waller faced off against a Chevrolet El Camino shortly after sunset, police said. Engines roaring, the hotrods allegedly barreled side-by-side toward the finish line -- until Jump unknowingly crossed into the second intersection to make a left turn.
Skid marks leading to her Geo Storm showed that Waller tried to brake but could not stop in time, police said. The El Camino sped away. Its unharmed driver has not been located.
Michael Hanson, 17, who was riding in the back seat of the Geo, remained hospitalized with serious injuries.
High school sweethearts, Jump and Hanson were students at Cuyamaca College, where Jump was pursuing a teaching career and Hanson studied engineering. Family members expected them to marry someday.
Instead, their ashes were spread together at sea two weeks ago.
"(Waller) knew what speed could do when he got into the car that day," said Randy Jump, the father of one victim. "These cars aren't safe on public streets."