Dangers Within the Car Community

     Car accidents across the world are estimated to cause 1.3 million deaths per year. The projected average in 2019 was 3,287 deaths per day. In America alone an estimated 42,915 people died due to car accidents in 2021. It is no mystery that cars are one of the most dangerous parts of our everyday living. With this in mind you would think that communities built around a love for cars would emphasize safety, but that is often not the case. There are many car communities throughout the world solely active in their own areas, but these communities are also apart of a larger worldwide community that has an appreciation for cars. The car community as a whole is vast and because of this, it is sometimes uncontrollable. While many true car enthusiasts attend car meets and events with nothing but good intentions, there are some people who attend simply to stir up chaos. These events and meet ups originally meant for people to come together in a safe space and share an appreciation for cars, have instead begun to develop into centers of crime, violence, and overall danger. Many events in this past year alone have resulted in a number of arrests, vehicle seizures, injuries, and deaths. 

Problems in the Car Community

    While the car community can be a great place it also contains a lot of people with large egos. This is one of the main problems with the car community as it leads to a lot of hatred between one another and reckless decision making. The amount of judgement and hate that is dished out over someone's car can be tremendous. This is probably due to some form of jealousy or idea that one is better than the other when in reality, someone is just trying to show their appreciation for cars. The community shouldn't be about what is better or faster but this is often misconceived as cars are often related to racing, which is competitive in nature. This is another problem with the car community, its inherent competitive nature that causes people to feel the need to top one another. As a result of this many tense and high risk situations are spawned, these can often result in disputes that entail violence, tragedy, and danger. One last problem I would like to talk about in the car community is the mob mentality that comes along with it. The high energy, tense situations that are created cause people to join in and take part in such behavior only creating more chaos. People see laws being broken and feel as if they gain a sense of immunity in numbers.

Car Meets

    Car meets are probably the most integral part of the car community and the most enjoyable when orchestrated properly. They provide a place for people of the same area to gather and network with one another outside of the internet. The variety of cars you can see and people you can meet is amazing, something that any car enthusiast would enjoy. Unfortunately the only ones to be orchestrated properly are highly official events that usually involve an outside presence, rather than your local community. Most local events begin online with a group of people agreeing to meet up in a parking lot somewhere. There are no restrictions because they are meeting on public property as individuals, and as you can imagine, the internet can sometimes cause things to go massively viral. Even if just a few hundred people see the post it can result in a large mass of people gathering in a parking lot for an event that has had no precautionary measures taken whatsoever. This causes issues with the people who may own the parking lot as well as the police who have to now deal with a massive event out of nowhere. With no set rules or regulations, and no one to enforce them, things can get out of hand quickly. The egoism and competitive nature talked about earlier can stir up problems such as cars doing burnouts, driving recklessly to one up each other, and also fights occurring. 

     One example of a car meet getting out of control comes from Wildwood, New Jersey. A unsanctioned car event known as H20i which has been very popular among the car community for years now took place on September 24th 2022. At this event things got out of hand with cars driving recklessly on public roads resulting in multiple accidents, one of which caused the death of two innocent pedestrians passing by.

Street Takeovers

    Separate from car meets but often going hand in hand with one another are street takeovers. This is when people decide to take over an intersection to do donuts and drive recklessly in their cars. This is one of the worst aspects within the car community and often sparks a controversial debate. These street takeovers are completely unsanctioned and against the law. The environment is probably the most dangerous with large amounts of peer pressure and crowds of people circling the street, while amateur drivers risk losing control of their vehicles. Fights and shootings are also prevalent at street takeovers due to the high disregard for the law that influences the mob mentality. Street takeovers almost always escalate into some climatic event, usually a bad one such as injury, death, or arrest.

    An example of this comes from Los Angeles in August of 2022. A street takeover resulted in 43 cars being impounded, 82 citations, and 40 arrests. 4 people were arrested on gun charges.

      Another example of street takeovers getting out of control is from Willowbrook, California. On August 14th 2022, Joshua Montes De Oca, a 15 year old boy was attending a street takeover where he was shot and killed by stray bullets flying amongst the crowd.

Online Community

    Social media and the internet has made the car community bigger than ever before by connecting people across the world and allowing for the sharing of ideas and knowledge. What also comes with social media though is the desire for recognition. Playing in part with the egoism and competitive nature within the car community, the online side of the car community can be quite toxic. Everyone will tell you that what you are doing is wrong no matter what. There will always be some supporters but it seems that the online community is generally negative. The cyber bullying and hate spread online is neglectful to the car community making it feel unsafe to join.

How to Make a Change

  

 The first step to making change within the car community is rooting out the egoism and competitive nature that is imbued in it. While there is no easy way to do this I think the best thing one can do is point out wrongdoings when you see them happening. Such as telling someone that it is not okay to drive recklessly on public roads because you are putting numerous people's lives at risk, that it is not okay to bully someone online, and that it is not okay to peer pressure someone into something dangerous. Pointing out the problem can help people to realize what they are doing is not right and not what the car community stands for. Another way we can make change is to spread positivity, with much negativity in the community just being positive can go a long way and bring back what is great about the car community. Finally, the best way to bring an end to these dangerous events is to not participate or attend them at all. By simply avoiding these dangerous situations you are saying with your actions that it is not acceptable, without people to cheer for them they cannot heighten their sense of ego by doing reckless things.

Personal Opinion

    I chose this issue within the car community because it is one that affects me greatly. I have loved cars my whole life and the community surrounding it has always been very cool to me. I have attended many car meets myself and have had a lot of fun doing so. With that being said, I have stopped going to car meets altogether in these past few years simply due to the fact that it is dangerous, and that there is always some sort of drama that goes on. My car has been ticketed before simply due to the fact that I was at one of these events and people were acting wild enough for the police to show up and do something about it. I love the bright side of the car community but unfortunately the dark side of it has turned me away. Knowing just how dangerous cars and people can be, especially in an unregulated space, made me realize just how risky attending one of these events can be. I still consider myself a part of the car community even though I do not participate within it very often anymore. The reformation of these events and spaces is something that I advocate for, and until then I will continue to avoid them entirely.

Interviews

    Aside from my personal views, I went out into the community to ask some members questions on the topic of dangers within the car community. Both participants that agreed to interview declined at having their photo included in the blog for personal reasons. Here is what I discovered.

    My first interview was with a Ryan Ottenbreit. He is a 21 year old male from Canada who is visiting friends in Los Angeles. He is a part of the car community himself and owns a 2012 Subaru WRX. Here are a few questions I asked him.

What is your opinion on street takeovers?

    "Street takeovers are one of the worst things for the car community. They are dangerous, and put the car community in a bad light. It makes people outside the community generalize all people in the car community as these dangerous drivers on the road causing havoc and endangering people. The number of injuries at these events (especially without any EMS onsite) creates a very dangerous situation, and would be an environment I would never involve myself in."

Do you feel as if the car community is a safe and welcoming space?

    "The increase in social media presence in the car community has changed the space heavily. In the past, people were very respectful and inclusive of all builds. Over the past few years, this inclusiveness has changed to hate. It is nearly impossible to see someone post their car online without receiving some hate on their car. People will hate the colour, the wheels, even minor things like the emblems on the car. I feel this creates an intimidating environment for people to join the community and share their love for cars as there is so much hate now. "

What are some reasons one might not want to go to a car meet or participate in the car community?

  "I think one reason is how often car shows get out of control. With what has been seen on the news with so many injuries and deaths at these car shows, it makes me cautious of what events I go to. Many organized events that state “no revving, no drifting, etc” yet these actions take place, and no one really stops it. Many people won’t take the risk of going to a car show with the risk of it getting out of hand."

   My second interview was with a Austin Roslinski, he is friends with my first interviewee. Austin is a 22 years old male and is also from Canada. His relation to the car community comes from working in a high performance auto shop and driving a 1997 Lancer Ralliart. Here are some questions I asked him.

Do you think people in the car community understand just how dangerous cars really are?

    "People think they are always in total control of their car and as a result, they don’t see the danger in what they are doing. The dangerous part is the driver, and people that are doing stuff to impress others are the problem. Too many people think they are professional drivers because they have a fast car and “have done this before.” This results in crashes and injuries that are seen at car shows so often."

How can we prevent these dangerous situations at car meets from happening? 

"I don’t see this ever changing. We have had street racing for decades and no amount of police involvement has stopped it. With the rise in incidence we are seeing it is clear something needs to be done. However, if your solution is to increase cop presence at the shows to keep it controlled, many people won't show up as they fear they could get in trouble for some of the modifications on their cars, or they won’t be able to have harmless fun (like revving their cars). I don’t think there is any good way of preventing these situations other than trying to show people  how dangerous cars can be." 

Conclusion

    Overall the car community has the potential to be something amazing. It is a community that spreads across the entire world and influences millions. Instead the car community is often looked at by the general public as criminal, due to the fact that many of the events and gatherings are unlawful, dangerous, and out of control. Through making these spaces safer we would be able to alter the view of the car community and welcome more individuals to join. The car community is about the appreciation of cars, not the competition of them.

Works Cited

    Asperin, Alexa M. “40 Arrests Made in La Street Takeover Crackdown: LAPD.” FOX 11 Los Angeles, FOX 11 Los Angeles, 25 Aug. 2022, https://www.foxla.com/news/lapd-la-street-takeover-crackdown-arrests. 

    Driving-Tests.org. “2022 Driving Statistics: The Ultimate List of Driving Stats.” Driving Statistics: The Ultimate List of Car Accident Statistics [2022], https://driving-tests.org/driving-statistics/.

    Media, NHTSA. “Newly Released Estimates Show Traffic Fatalities Reached a 16-Year High in 2021.” NHTSA, NHTSA, 17 May 2022, https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/early-estimate-2021-traffic-fatalities. 

    Philadelphia, FOX 29. “Officials: Pittsburgh Man Charged in Crash That Killed 2 Pedestrians during H2OI Car Rally in Wildwood.” FOX 29 News Philadelphia, FOX 29 News Philadelphia, 29 Sept. 2022, https://www.fox29.com/news/officials-man-arrested-for-crash-that-killed-2-pedestrians-during-h2oi-car-rally-in-wildwood. 

    Solis, Nathan, and Melissa Hernandez. “Inside L.A.'s Deadly Street Takeover Scene: 'A Scene of Lawlessness'.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 22 Aug. 2022, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-22/street-takeovers-sideshow-deadly-toll-los-angeles. 

    Wolfe, Chris. “Family of Teen Killed during Street Takeover Still Waiting for Answers.” KTLA, KTLA, 23 Aug. 2022, https://ktla.com/news/local-news/family-of-teen-killed-during-street-takeover-still-waiting-for-answers/.