Highway not a race track, police warn after pricey car demolished
2016 Mclaren 570S super car extensively damaged after it went off the road on Thursday evening
Speed caught up to what local Mounties call a “super car” Thursday evening, bringing a warning from Osoyoos RCMP that BC highways are not the place for racing.
“There’s a state-of-the-art track built here and the purpose of that track is to use it to test your car as a race car,” said Jason Bayda, the detachment’s commander. “If people want to drive fast, they should be looking at the track and becoming members.”
His comments follow a single-vehicle accident around 6 p.m. on Thursday involving a 2016 Mclaren 570S just west of Osoyoos near Spotted Lake.
RCMP responded to the single-vehicle collision after reports the driver of the vehicle — an unidentified 28-year-old male — lost control of the car and went off the road.
The driver, and his 50-year-old passenger, both from the Lower Mainland, were transported to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, RCMP said.
The vehicle was not as lucky. Damage to the Mclaren — which has a base price of US $184,000 — was extensive.
Speed appears to be a factor in the crash, RCMP is reporting.
“It went off the road into a ditch, hit a driveway and launched — and landed, looking at the pictures, 100-feet beyond or so,” said Sgt. Bayda.
His detachment — and others in the South Okanagan — are fielding more complaints about “super cars,” he added.
“We’re certainly getting more calls throughout the South Okanagan of super cars driving at high speeds and things like that,” he said, adding those complaints, until now, haven’t brought an increase in collisions.
“(But) more cars on the road are going to result in more accidents and more mishaps.”
And that, says Bill Drossos, the president and general manager of the Area 27 Motorsport Society, is why the local racetrack was built.
He noted the driver of the smashed Mclaren was not a member of the club.
“(Area 27) was created to actually give an outlet and get people to be more professional in their approach and have a place to learn to drive properly,” he said.
The club’s members are required to undergo a rigorous professional driving course that quickly weeds out unsafe drivers.
“The dangerous person is the person who buys the car to show off,” he added. “Usually those people won’t even make it through our driving school. They’ll be ejected.”
Area 27’s Members Rules and Regulations include language on public roadway conduct.
They include a termination of membership for any member “convicted of causing an accident resulting in serious injury or death on a public roadway” and a one-year suspension for a first street-racing conviction.
“We can’t control the public at large,” Drossos concluded. “There’s lots of people with sports cars around. They’re always doing stupid things.”
We can’t control the public at large.There’s lots of people with sports cars around. They’re always doing stupid things. Area 27 Motorsport Society president Bill Drossos