Stiffer penalties for street racers
The headline in the Mississauga News stopped me cold:
“Racer sentenced to nine months in jail,” it said.
“Shut the front door!” I said to myself, as I searched for the name of the race car driver who’d been sent to jail for — what?
It turned out not be someone who races at Mosport or Toronto Motorsports Park or any of the many southern Ontario speedways where real racers race.
It was a report about a street race in which the defendant, who was charged with dangerous driving causing death, was sentenced to nine months but, with time served, will be back on the street in a little over six.
The original charge was criminal negligence causing death but it was dropped to dangerous driving on a plea bargain.
Nine months for racing on the street? An illegal act, in which a 20-year-old guy was killed, and probably many more people scared out of their wits at the sight of this happening? How about 10 years? I don’t care, as the story said, if the accused pulled out of the race early, and tried to help the mortally wounded fellow (how nice of him).
Racing on a public highway is the height of selfishness, irresponsible and illegal, and somebody is dead and that is worth a lot more than nine months in my book.
Of course, I’m talking to the wind here. Some judge somewhere along the line determined that nine months for a death caused by street racing is an appropriate penalty, and this precedent thus became the norm.
So, if some brave judge somewhere in Canada actually sentenced somebody to 10 years for committing this heinous act, it would be overturned on appeal because the law of the land says a life lost as the result of street racing isn’t worth more than nine months.
Only when an influential cabinet minister, or a member of the judiciary, loses a loved one like this will anything ever change.
Meantime, the guilty man — who, according to his lawyer, is now very involved with his church (care to bet how long that will last?) — won’t be allowed to drive legally for the next two years.
That won’t mean he won’t drive, of course.
He didn’t care about the law this time; who’s to say he’ll care about it in the future?
DANICA PATRICK is a good enough race driver that she should be able to qualify for the iconic Daytona 500 without being handled with kid gloves by new Sprint Cup employer Tony Stewart.
It was announced this week that Stewart made a deal with Tommy Baldwin — whose car finished 32nd in points last season and is thus guaranteed a starting spot in the first five races of 2012 — for Patrick to drive the car at Daytona.
She doesn’t need this kind of pampering.
And if, in fact, she does, then she shouldn’t be driving in Sprint Cup.
As it’s all about perception in today’s world, and if she’s to succeed in NASCAR, Stewart and her other handlers would be better off throwing her to the wolves and seeing if she can survive before the whispers about favouritism grow loud in that series, too.
It really is survival of the fittest. If Patrick is to survive, she has to give as good as she gets.
Which means qualifying for the dozen or so Sprint Cup races she’s to run this season is essential in order to prove she’s at least as fast as that gang.
Let her do that, and then let her do some bashin’ and crashin’ to prove her mettle in combat, and she’ll continue to be a fan favourite.
Paving the way for her before she’s even driven in her first Sprint Cup race has every chance of backfiring. nmcdonald@thestar.ca