Detroit Police Point to Street Racing in Fatal Go Kart-Vs.-Motorcycle Crash
French Road has been a notorious street racing spot for years, authorities say.
One man is dead and another remains hospitalized with serious injuries after police say the pair collided while allegedly racing a high-performance go-kart and a sport bike on a public street in Detroit, according to Click on Detroit.
Detroit has a lot of abandoned properties, and thus, a lot of long, lonely stretches of road where no one is watching. Street racing is a longstanding problem for police—they've responded to over 300 reports in the last month alone, WJBK News reports—and French Road, bounded by a municipal airport on one side and empty lots on the other, is a notorious trouble spot. There are more than a few videos on YouTube showing amateur, highly-illegal meet-ups on the road with everything from cars to bikes to quads going head-to-head in dangerously-close-quarters racing.
Police say the two men involved in the accident brought the professional-spec racing kart and what appeared to be a four-cylinder sport bike to French Road on Sunday night to do exactly that. A witness and friend of the kart's owner later stated that the kart had been modified and was capable of around 100 mph.
At some point, the 21-year-old man driving the kart was attempting a U-turn at the far end of the straight when he crossed in front of the speeding bike. He was killed instantly, while the 31-year-old motorcycle rider was thrown from the bike and seriously injured.
There are no two ways about it: Street racing is stupid and dangerous, all the more so when it involves a non-street-legal vehicle like a racing kart. As Detroit Police want to remind everyone, save it for the track.