---
title: "Detroit Police Point to Street Racing in Fatal Go Kart-Vs.-Motorcycle Crash"
description: "French Road has been a notorious street racing spot for years, authorities say."
date: "2017-08-22"
modified: "2017-08-22"
authors:
  - name: "Kyle Cheromcha"
    job_title: "Editor-in-Chief"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kyle-cheromcha"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/13705/detroit-police-point-to-street-racing-in-fatal-go-kart-vs-motorcycle-crash"
categories:
  - "Motorcycles"
  - "News"
  - "The Garage"
tags:
  - "Crash"
  - "Detroit"
  - "Kart"
  - "motorcycle"
  - "sport bike"
  - "Street Racing"
---

# Detroit Police Point to Street Racing in Fatal Go Kart-Vs.-Motorcycle Crash

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2017/08/go-kart2.png>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

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**.*](<https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/man-21-on-go-kart-killed-in-collision-with-motorcyclist-police-say>)

Detroit has a lot of abandoned properties, and thus, a lot of long, lonely stretches of road where no one is watching. [Street racing](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/10302/ford-mustang-split-in-two-after-being-t-boned-during-alleged-street-race>) is a longstanding problem for police—they've responded to over 300 reports in the last month alone, [*WJBK News* reports](<https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/275089047-story>)—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](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjK6CKuoQEM>) 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,](<https://www.thedrive.com/watch-this/13421/watch-a-street-racing-infiniti-g37-push-a-bmw-underneath-a-semi-truck>) 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.

## Author
Overseeing an expert staff of writers and editors from his lair in Los Angeles, Kyle shapes The Drive’s singular approach to covering the automotive industry and car culture. He’s been with the site as a writer since 2017, taking over as editor in 2019. On a daily basis, Kyle is responsible for directing The Drive's editorial news and car review content strategies, setting special coverage priorities, managing complex reporting projects, and ensuring what you read on the page meets our high internal standards for quality and trustworthiness. He is also the executive producer of The Drive's YouTube channel, which was relaunched in February 2024 to great acclaim and has accumulated over 14M new views in its first year back on the scene. He hosts a biweekly series on the channel where he breaks down fascinating and complicated stories from the automotive world.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/kylecheromcha.bsky.social>)  
[Instagram](<https://www.instagram.com/kylecheromcha>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-cheromcha-1550248a/>)