Accused street racer pleads guilty to careless driving

An Edmonton man accused of street racing in July 2014 has pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of careless driving.

Jamal Ibrahim Smilley, 23, was fined $2,000 and banned from driving for three months after he pleaded guilty in Edmonton provincial court Tuesday.

He was originally charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

Smilley was charged after police clocked two cars, a Mercedes-Benz and a BMW, driving at 160 kilometres per hour in a 60 km/h zone near the intersection of 137th Avenue and Castle Downs Road.

After police pulled over the two drivers, two off-duty officers arrived at the scene and said they saw the two vehicles previously speeding along near 137th Avenue and St. Albert Trail.

At the time, Sgt. David Green of the Edmonton Police Service specialized traffic apprehension team, said driving at 160 km/h means a vehicle requires a distance of more than 300 metres to stop.

“There’s 328 things you need to be calculating for in every single second,” Green said.

“The odds of you getting into a collision at that speed are astronomical.”

Green said street racing isn’t an epidemic in the city.

“It is a problem; thankfully it’s not a Fast and Furious situation.”

The case of a co-accused, Ahmad Sayed Abou Alhassan, is still before the courts.