The fast and the unprosecutable

 

 NY Daily News

It’s a cat and mouse game — but the mice drive too fast and recklessly and are not always held accountable, even when cops nab them.

“You can’t catch me. You’re stupid,” driver Oscar Malik, 28, allegedly taunted out-of-earshot cops in a police cruiser who spotted him as he roared on the Long Island Expressway in March 2021 at a speed police believe hit 117 mph.

They did catch him, but off the road. Police traced and arrested Malik with help from the Instagram feed that recorded his high-speed drive — which officers downloaded before he deleted his account.

Malik got the last laugh in August, when the charges against him were dismissed and his case was sealed because Queens prosecutors didn’t hand over evidence to his defense lawyer in accord with the state’s discovery reform law, said law enforcement sources. The Queens DA’s office did not comment on the matter.

“This is very disheartening,” said Insp. Sylvester Ge, head of the NYPD’s Highway Division. “And it’s an injustice.”

It was another blow to the NYPD’s unceasing race against organized reckless driving, which takes several forms —ranging from highway drag races to impromptu gatherings where drivers spin donuts at intersections, parking lots or traffic plazas.

There’s no data on how many people die from such driving, though it’s clear speeding — an element of drag racing — is a factor in numerous roadway deaths. Speeding factored in 31 of of 159 New York City traffic deaths in 2022 for which data is available — a rate of 21%.

A notorious death case involving drag racing occurred Nov. 20, 2020, when Daniel Crawford, 53, died on his way at Queens Hospital Center, where he worked as a phlebotomist. Crawford’s car was T-boned by one of two drivers drag racing each other.

Both drivers believed involved in the race that killed Crawford were indicted in February. Alamin Ahmed and Mir Fahmid, both 24, face murder and manslaughter charges. Prosecutors said the duo, out celebrating Fahmid’s birthday, were seen on video getting gas at a service station at Main St. and Union Turnpike, then drag racing down the turnpike. Their cases are pending.

Drag races and other gatherings are often organized on the internet. “Some of it is posted on social media — they talk about it beforehand, what they plan to do, which helps us,” Ge said. “And they post videos afterwards. So, some of it is organized, with rules, like no brakes allowed.

“Or it’s two drivers who see each other on the highway — one starts going and the other one decides, ‘Let’s have a race,’” Ge added. “They really have no regard for public safety.”

A gate grows in Bay Terrace

Patch 

  Baysiders should sleep better now that a local parking lot is locked up at night, one politician promised.

Over the past several months neighbors have been complaining about noisy car meetups at the Little Bay Park parking lot at the entrance of Fort Totten, said Assembly Member Edward Braunstein, who represents most of Bayside.

Bay Terrace locals have filed seven drag racing reports with 311 in the past six months (more than triple the number of complaints in Bayside during that same time, data shows), and shown up at the local police precinct to complain about the noise, said NYPD Deputy Inspector John O'Connell.

To curb car noise (and complaints) Braunstein, alongside the NYPD and Parks Department, has helped set up a gate and lock at the entrance of the parking lot, which is shut by police officers at park closing, 10 p.m., and reopened by the Parks Department in the morning.

"The new locking system.... will hopefully put a stop to this quality of life concern for the long term," said Braunstein in a news statement.

Sunnyside Drag City

 

LIC Post

Revved up engines, screeching tires and the din of loud music booming out of car windows are among the sounds that are waking up residents throughout Sunnyside late at night.

The noise stems from drag racers who have been tearing up and down the streets and avenues of Sunnyside late at night—often on their way to empty parking lots on 48th Street by Northern Boulevard to burn rubber with hundreds of onlookers.

“It’s been happening every weekend, and two or three random nights during the week,” said Monica Hall, a born and bred Sunnysider who lives on 49th Street by 39th Avenue. “It’s so loud my dogs hide behind the furniture.”

The complaints about drag racing have been piling up in the past two months, with the trouble spots including 39th Avenue, Skillman Avenue, 43rd Avenue as well as 43rd and 48th Streets.

There have been 32 complaints about drag racing in the 11101 and 11104 ZIP codes from Sept.1 through Oct. 5, according to 311 data analyzed by the Queens Post.  For the same period last year, there were just two for those zip codes.

The data also shows that 25 of 32 complaints concern incidents in Sunnyside Gardens and in the Long Island City area near the Home Depot parking by Northern Boulevard, a popular venue for drag racers.

Antoin O’Duibhir, who lives on 39th Avenue by 48th Street, said that the noise has become too much. He says that many of the drag racers tear up local streets with their souped-up cars and then go down to the Home Depot parking lot.

“It’s been going on for weeks,” O’Duibhir said. “It’s like shotguns going off out the back of them. You hear these big pops going off.”

O’Duibhir, fed up by what’s been going on, did some investigative work and checked out what was happening at the Home Depot parking lot on Saturday night.

“I went down there at midnight and there were crowds and crowds of people,” he said. “I would say 500 people and lots of cars too.”

He said that he was stunned by the number of attendees and how organized it was. He said there was even drone capturing footage of the event.

“They have nice cars, souped-up Mercedes and BMWs,” he said. “All have nice wheels, mufflers and dark windows.”

The cars take turns ripping donuts, he said. In one instance, which he recorded, the driver was doing a spin while a passenger was hanging out the car window trying to get the crowd to cheer him on.

“It’s dangerous,” he said, adding that someone will get killed. He said the vehicles spin so close to the spectators.

 

 

 

 

Here we go again

"The nightly racing and loud music coming from FMP that goes on every summer (and has for at least the last 7 years) is starting again. Now that the weather is starting to warm up, the late night drag racers and partners are returning to the park. This started this past weekend at around midnight and has gone on almost every night since. Last night it started at 2 am with screaming motorcycle engines for close to an hr.

Every summer the Police are called multiple times a night, every night, and nothing seems to happen. Is this what we have to look forward to this summer?" - anonymous

Waldbaum's becomes staging area for drag racers

From the Queens Chronicle:

A group of streets in Howard Beach are being overtaken by people meeting up in the Waldbaum’s parking lot on Cross Bay Boulevard and playing loud music, conducting lewd acts and racing along the corridor.

“This needs to stop,” one resident who identified himself as Neal said.

Neal, who lives near the Waldbaum’s at 156-01 Cross Bay Blvd., said people have been gathering inside the parking lot to prepare for races down the boulevard.

He said the group has overrun his quiet block, which consists primarily of senior citizens.

“I never thought this would’ve happened on my block,” he said. “I would have never moved here if I thought this was going to happen.”

Neal said the people who gather in the parking lot have also taken to littering the nearby streets with garbage, beer bottles and drug paraphernalia.

He also told the story of how one night he saw a female driver sleeping in her car, with her foot on the brake.

Neal has called the cops on the group many times, but claims that someone must have a police scanner because the cars disperse before the authorities arrive.

More unintended consequences of Maspeth Bypass

"I received this e-mail from a resident of West Maspeth over the weekend:

"Do you know that now that they have made Maurice Avenue a one-way going to the L.I.E. that they have made a raceway for the kids? They have already been racing here. The lanes are super wide and they don't have to worry about vehicles going the other way. It's only a matter of time before someone gets killed."

Earlier this year, DOT installed speed humps on the part of Maurice Avenue north of the expressway to stop the drag racing that was going on there and it worked like a charm. But they can't do that on this stretch of road because they rerouted the Q39 bus to make stops along Maurice, and we were told that DOT cannot install speed humps on bus routes. I'm not sure what the solution is to this problem other than to change Maurice Avenue back to a two-way street. The NYPD has been informed about the drag racing and said they will monitor the situation, but they can't be down there every night." - Christina Wilkinson

Drag racing deaths rampant

From the NY Post:

One man was killed and another injured this morning after a high-speed crash on a notorious stretch of road in Queens known for drag-racing.

A 2003 black Nissan Maxima was traveling westbound on North Conduit Avenue near 78th Street in Ozone Park about 10 a.m. when the driver lost control of the vehicle near a bend in the road, slammed into a light pole and toppling it, causing the car to overturn and rest on its roof, witnesses said.

The driver, Geraud Gray, 24, was pronounced dead at the scene. His 18-year-old passenger was taken to Brookdale hospital where he was listed in stable condition, police said.

A police source estimated that the car was traveling in excess of 90 mph.

Neighbors said racing on the three-lane strip, on the border between Brooklyn and Queens, is nothing new.

Fatal drag racing incidents this week in Brooklyn and on Long Island as well.

Trying to end Maurice Avenue drag racing

From Eyewitness News:

Residents of Maurice Avenue in Queens say they fear for their safety.

Cars are regularly racing down the street in the Woodside and Maspeth sections, neighbors say, and they are sometimes doing 100 miles per hour trying to beat each other from one light to other.

Residents worry the drivers, the spectators or the people who live here will lose their life if something doesn't get done soon.

Drag racing accident in Fresh Meadows

From Fox 5:

FRESH MEADOWS, N.Y. - An 11-year-old boy is in critical condition after the BMW he was riding in crashed during a drag race with a Lexus in Queens.

Police say the drivers- an 18 year old and a 16 year old- were racing on Francis Lewis Boulevard just before 11 p.m. on Wednesday.

Cops say the 18-year-old driver of the BMW lost control and smashed into parked cars.

The driver, the front seat passenger and the 11 year old were taken to Booth Memorial Hospital.

The driver of the Lexus suffered minor injuries.

A witness tells Fox 5 News reporter Christine Persichette that the Lexus spun around three times before coming to a stop.

The witness added that he was not surprised that a crash occurred because drag racing happens frequently on Francis Lewis Boulevard.