Paratrooper82d
05-24-2005, 08:43 AM
Guys and Gals. Just wanted to let everyone see this link. The reason I am posting it is because it happened right here in my hometown and has been a popular cruising spot for many years now. I know I have had my share of street races before but it really makes you stop and think about it. This happened last night here. If you are going to street race just be safe about it and away from people.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlo...ws/11721916.htm (http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/11721916.htm)
Car plows into crowd in Gastonia
5 hurt as drag-racing car crashes into line
GASTONIA - A drag-racing car plowed into a crowd of people waiting in line for ice cream in downtown Gastonia on Monday night, throwing people as far as 20 feet and knocking some of them out of their shoes.
Five people were injured, at least one of them seriously.
As of early this morning, Gastonia police were still looking for the two drivers who had been racing down the popular main drag, Sgt. Jeff Clark said. The driver of the car that crashed outside the Dairy Queen ran from the scene. The other, a driver of a green Mitsubishi Eclipse, drove off.
The late model Chevrolet Camaro crashed at 9:22 p.m. in the parking lot of the Dairy Queen at East Franklin Boulevard and Church Street, according to Gaston County emergency dispatchers.
"It honestly sounded like a video game," said Ashley Bradshaw, 19, who works at the Dairy Queen but was next door on a bench outside Ink Link Tattoos when the wreck occurred.
"When he hit that telephone pole, I felt it."
The force of the wreck knocked down a utility pole, sending a power line across Franklin Street, said Tommy Cleary, a Gaston County Emergency Medical Services supervisor.
Witnesses described it as breaking like a toothpick.
The Camaro crashed into a parked Ford Explorer, injuring a woman in the driver's seat, Cleary said. It also plowed into four people standing in line.
Leigh Anne Bradley, a 19-year-old Dairy Queen employee, was serving customers when the car struck the group of people in front of her.
She said the car was speeding when it hit a power pole, spun around and hit four or five people. People lay on the curb screaming, including some children who screamed for their parents, she said.
Bradley said she and other employees put ice on victims' injuries and comforted them while they waited for paramedics.
Meanwhile, Bradshaw and two friends rushed into the parking lot and saw the blood. Carrie Morris, 23, of Chapel Grove said she ran back to the tattoo parlor, got protective gloves from the tattoo artists and ran back to the scene of the crash. She left the gloves at the scene for anyone helping the injured.
Morris said cars often race on the stretch, and on Monday night she could hear their engines roaring before the crash.
"They race a lot here, probably 50, 60 times a night," she said. "It's called light-to-light racing."
The wreck comes just days before police had planned to hold a community meeting to discuss speeding and cruising along Franklin Boulevard, Clark said.
"This is by far the worst thing we've had out here," he said.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlo...ws/11721916.htm (http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/11721916.htm)
Car plows into crowd in Gastonia
5 hurt as drag-racing car crashes into line
GASTONIA - A drag-racing car plowed into a crowd of people waiting in line for ice cream in downtown Gastonia on Monday night, throwing people as far as 20 feet and knocking some of them out of their shoes.
Five people were injured, at least one of them seriously.
As of early this morning, Gastonia police were still looking for the two drivers who had been racing down the popular main drag, Sgt. Jeff Clark said. The driver of the car that crashed outside the Dairy Queen ran from the scene. The other, a driver of a green Mitsubishi Eclipse, drove off.
The late model Chevrolet Camaro crashed at 9:22 p.m. in the parking lot of the Dairy Queen at East Franklin Boulevard and Church Street, according to Gaston County emergency dispatchers.
"It honestly sounded like a video game," said Ashley Bradshaw, 19, who works at the Dairy Queen but was next door on a bench outside Ink Link Tattoos when the wreck occurred.
"When he hit that telephone pole, I felt it."
The force of the wreck knocked down a utility pole, sending a power line across Franklin Street, said Tommy Cleary, a Gaston County Emergency Medical Services supervisor.
Witnesses described it as breaking like a toothpick.
The Camaro crashed into a parked Ford Explorer, injuring a woman in the driver's seat, Cleary said. It also plowed into four people standing in line.
Leigh Anne Bradley, a 19-year-old Dairy Queen employee, was serving customers when the car struck the group of people in front of her.
She said the car was speeding when it hit a power pole, spun around and hit four or five people. People lay on the curb screaming, including some children who screamed for their parents, she said.
Bradley said she and other employees put ice on victims' injuries and comforted them while they waited for paramedics.
Meanwhile, Bradshaw and two friends rushed into the parking lot and saw the blood. Carrie Morris, 23, of Chapel Grove said she ran back to the tattoo parlor, got protective gloves from the tattoo artists and ran back to the scene of the crash. She left the gloves at the scene for anyone helping the injured.
Morris said cars often race on the stretch, and on Monday night she could hear their engines roaring before the crash.
"They race a lot here, probably 50, 60 times a night," she said. "It's called light-to-light racing."
The wreck comes just days before police had planned to hold a community meeting to discuss speeding and cruising along Franklin Boulevard, Clark said.
"This is by far the worst thing we've had out here," he said.