---
title: "Ford Mustang Splits in Half During Illegal Street Racing Crash, Driver Walks Away"
description: "Roll cages can save lives. Street racing can end them."
date: "2018-10-16"
modified: "2018-10-16"
authors:
  - name: "Kyle Cheromcha"
    job_title: "Editor-in-Chief"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kyle-cheromcha"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/24232/ford-mustang-splits-in-half-during-illegal-street-racing-crash-driver-walks-away"
categories:
  - "Ford News"
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
  - "Watch This"
tags:
  - "Coupe"
  - "Crash"
  - "drag racing"
  - "Ford"
  - "fox body"
  - "Illegal"
  - "Mustang"
  - "safety"
  - "sports car"
---

# Ford Mustang Splits in Half During Illegal Street Racing Crash, Driver Walks Away

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2018/10/mustang-crash.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

If you were draw up a list of dangerous conditions for some healthy competition, it's hard to top the mix [seen in this video](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Xvvnsv150>) of an illegal street race that ended with a drag-built [Fox body Ford Mustang](<https://www.thedrive.com/muscle-cars/5250/can-the-fox-body-ford-mustang-be-a-legit-track-car>)—minus a roll cage—split in half after smashing into a power pole. Amazingly, the driver escaped with relatively minor injuries.

Popular drag racing YouTube channel [*1320 Video*](<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0PXqiud6dbwOAk8RvslgpQ>) sometimes deals in this kind of extracurricular idiocy, but rarely does it end as badly as this nighttime battle somewhere in Louisiana. The setting is a four-lane divided parkway lined with power poles and large streetlights. The competitors are two older Mustangs that appear to be heavily modified for drag racing, with blown motors, bulging hoods, and massive drag slicks out back. Neither driver is wearing any safety gear, and the doomed 'Stang doesn't even have working headlights.

https://youtube.com/embed/l6Xvvnsv150

Things go wrong within seconds. The driver in the right lane loses control and spears off the road before the car plows into the pole with a sickening crunch. A second angle, shot from further down the road, shows the Mustang struck the pole on its right passenger door at about a 45 degree angle. As the cameraman sprints towards the cloud of dust and smoke, it becomes clear the car has been almost completely bisected. It had been built for racing without a roll cage.

Incredibly, the driver is alive and relatively unscathed, though he appears disoriented and collapses to the ground after spectators help him out of the wreckage. It's later revealed that he broke his jaw and one of his shoulders, and it's an understatement to say that it could have been a lot worse. The pole must have missed him by inches as it sliced through the cabin. It's also fortunate that no one was standing in the path of destruction.

*Save it for the track* is the usual prescription here, but this car would have been just as dangerous in a crash on a sanctioned strip. Still, it must always be spelled out: [street racing is illegal,](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/22973/dodge-hellcat-driver-arrested-for-doing-198-mph-on-highway-posting-video-on-youtube>) dangerous, and incredibly dumb.

## 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/>)