Street racing isn’t only seen in movies. It happens every hour of every day in just about every state in the country. Racing on a public roadway isn’t only unsafe though. It’s also legally risky. It’s illegal in all 50 states, but that doesn’t deter drivers, especially when there is considerably less traffic on roadways because of COVID-19.
Drag Racing Used to be Street Racing
Don’t confuse drag racing on a quarter mile strip with street racing. Drag racing was born on California streets sometime after World War II. Given the high rate of drag racing severe injuries and fatalities on California roadways, that type of racing was moved to private drag strips that were far safer for racers, enthusiasts and the general public. Although some drag racing occurs on America’s roads, most drag races are legal, organized, sanctioned and controlled events at a specially and carefully designed facilities. Street racing isn’t sanctioned by any organizations. Most street races are spontaneous. They’re illegal, and there’s nothing safe about them.
States with the Highest Street Racing Convictions
In some states, street racing appears to occur more frequently than other states. One website that is focused on comparing auto insurance premiums performed its own analysis to determine which states have the biggest issues with street racing. A database of more than 1.6 million coverage applications was used. Drivers were required to disclose whether they’d been convicted of any street racing violations. The number of those who had admitted to convictions was compared against the total number of licensed drivers in each state. Here’s how they finished per 100,000 drivers:
- Georgia: 7 per 100,000.
- Florida: 8 per 100,000.
- Missouri: 9 per 100,000.
- South Carolina: 12 per 100,000.
- North Carolina: 13 per 100,000.
- Arkansas: 15 per 100,000.
- Oklahoma: 15 per 100,000.
- California: 22 per 100,000.
- Arizona: 28 per 100,000.
- Virginia: 32 per 100,000.
The Climate Factor
No northern states approach being in the top 10 street racing states. There’s simply too much rain, ice and snow for street racing to be a statistically significant danger to public safety. It’s a short street racing season in those states
A Bit of Good News for 2020
One of the few pieces of good news coming from the COVID-19 pandemic was that in California, injury and fatality rates as a whole dropped dramatically. The 2020 year started out dreadfully with an average of abut 1,775 car accidents per week at the February 10, 2020 point. By the next month when COVID-19 stay-at-home orders were issued, fewer than 600 car accidents per week were recorded. City streets and freeways were nearly deserted. Car accidents per week on California state highways that were caused by speeding also fell drastically from about 700 in March of 2019 to about 200 in March of 2020.