Street Racing....a lesson learned the hard way
 

This is reality....this happens all the time. :(

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Mark Tu (17) was killed when he crashed his car into a pole during a lunchtime race

Mark Tu died Friday inside the prized red car he called Foxy Roxy.

His 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse wrapped around a utility pole moments after leaving Plano Senior High School for CiCi's Pizza at lunchtime.

Mark, a 17-year-old senior, was dead when police and paramedics arrived. A friend in the car was taken to Medical Center of Plano. The second teen's name was not released. Police said he was alert and talking at the hospital.

Mark and the driver of a black Ford Mustang were speeding when they came upon a third car driving the speed limit, police said.

Plano police spokesman Rick McDonald said investigators believe Mark's car collided with the Mustang and the third car before spinning into the pole.

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Police said Mark and his passenger were not wearing seat belts.

No charges had been filed, and police were still investigating. The Mustang was driven by another student, who was not injured. The adult driver of the third car also was unhurt.

Plano police said they were uncertain whether racing was a factor in the Plano accident. Racing is common along that strip of Park Boulevard near Woodburn Corners, just down the street from Plano Senior High, they said.

The impact of the accident pushed the utility pole to lean at nearly a 45-degree angle. About 40 to 50 students stopped at the accident scene during lunchtime. They hugged one another and talked about the crash, which many students had witnessed. Several called their parents and friends to tell them who died.

A number of classmates witnessed the accident.

Nathan Cory, 17, and Bryan Barrett, 18, who are also students at Plano Senior High, said they were driving behind Mark's car before the accident and ran up to try to help afterward.

They said they heard the passenger screaming. He was trapped in the crushed car, and they were unable to move him.

"We really couldn't do anything," Bryan said.

Plano's three senior high schools enroll juniors and seniors. They are all open campuses, meaning students can leave school grounds for lunch. At least a few other area districts, including Highland Park, Arlington and Fort Worth, have open campus policies that allow at least some of their high school students to leave at lunch.

Fort Worth school district Superintendent Melody Johnson has said she wants a districtwide review of the open campus policy there after a 15-year-old boy was injured in a lunchtime shooting last month at South Hills High School. Last year, a Dunbar High School football player died in a lunchtime car accident.

News of the accident in Plano spread quickly through the school.

"When students began returning from lunch and learning about the tragic accident, the teachers allowed them to go visit the counselors if they needed to," Plano schools spokeswoman Nancy Long said.

She said some students chose to leave school after they heard, and their parents were notified.

Senior Alex Rojas, who had known Mark since they attended Wilson Middle School together, was also on his way to CiCi's.

"It was hard having to witness that," he said. "It was tough."

Alex went back to school, signed himself out and left. He said people were talking in school hallways about the accident, some crying.

Mark's best friends said he was a fun-loving teen who loved his car.

Sean Garza and Catherine Samuels, both 16 and juniors at Plano Senior High, said the three of them were inseparable.

"We were a trio," Sean said. "We hung out every weekend, every day. He was an amazing person."

Mark worked at Planet Burrito and saved most of what he made to pump up Foxy Roxy. Sean said Mark had been saving for new tire rims.

Catherine's father, Barry Samuels, said Mark was a good friend to their family. The teen often came to their house after he left work.

"We will remember Mark for his kind and calm demeanor," Mr. Samuels said. "We really like and enjoyed Mark and are very, very sad."

Mark's Web page on MySpace .com shows pictures of his car. Photos document the work he put into it. He wrote "Racing= My life" and "I love my friends!!!!" on the site.

Mark wrote that he was into the rock band Blink 182. He preferred Pepsi to Coke. He was right-handed, and his weakness was love.

Friends began leaving messages Friday afternoon on his Web site.

"You'll always be on my mind and in my heart," one girl wrote. "Watch me from heaven! I love you times a billion."

Very Sad. :shakes head:

Didn't even get his pizza.

His myspace account:

MySpace.com - Dammitblnk182 - 20 - Male - PLANO, TEXAS - myspace.com/dammitblnk182

This is from a myspace survey he has listed on his profile

Survey Question:

I thought this was a recent incident...actually this happened back in 2006. Still, what a horrible accident.

Oh whoa! Good call. I didn't notice that either. Kind of creepy, it lists his age as 20 years old on myspace.

Auto update, maybe? Or someone could possibly be maintaining it. I have Facebook but never got into Myspace enough to sign up.

It is an auto update. So sad but it is temptations when a car pulls up beside you, and I will be honest over 80% OF THE CARS THAT PULL UP THAT WANT TO RACE ME AND THAT ARE ALL COCKY HAVE THE MUSTANG WITH THERE GIRL IN THE CAR. What morons I am not denying that I have not raced it is just I will not do it in a busy place.

This is precisely the reason the CHIPS police in California started building drag racing tracks back in the late 50's in order to get this crap off the public streets.

This is why I am an adamant proponent of states that allow the police to not only seize street racer vehicles when caught but also allows the police to not just impound the car but also immediately have such cars crushed whether the racer owner still owes on a loan on them or not.

These morons just don't get the plain and simple fact that other non-racing folks driving on the public roads are NOT aware that there may be idiots coming up from behind them racing. And frankly they should NOT have to be aware of that at all. These poor folks are just driving and reacting within the normal speed limits and reaction times. They will not usually realize these morons are going to be up on them in a matter of seconds. And then the ordinary driver reacts in their normal fashion to change lanes or something thinking they have plenty of time to do so because they don't realize the racers are coming at them at a much higher speed....and bingo...all of a sudden the racers have to unexpectantly adjust to the ordinary drivers actions...and now an accident event begins to happen that often costs people their life...

What kills me even more is that the street-racers that realize the dangers just blow the dangers off thinking it won't ever happen to them because their reaction times or driving skills are good enough. Well lets see these buffoons account for the unpredicted moves of the ordinary drivers...

I have no sympathy for people who street race....I am sorry this azzhole had to loose his life before the light-bulb went on...but I have a side of me that says this is one less moron that is jeopardizing the lives of ordinary drivers...and one less set of deleterious genes that would find its way into the gene pool so they won't get propogated further.

A word out to these azzholes at least in Ohio...Do you feel lucky, punk?......any street-racer that so much as even goes by me while racing another car, it's an automatic call on my part to the state highway patrol and I'm giving your license plate number up to them...I have been doing this for two years now and have helped remove a couple of these morons off the interstate highways here. :mad:

I would love to see more opportunities for kids like this to race on the track. Cheap track days would help relieve the competitiveness of younger children. With that said there is still NO excuse for such actions.

why do ppl not wear seat belts???i dont get it

I wonder the same thing. Honestly, it's not just an issue of your safety, but everyone else's on the road. I don't want to be driving & have to swerve because someone's body was ejected in front my car.

^^ i wouldn't like that either...i would swerve and turn my wipers on??

:rofl2: I hate to laugh but I had a mental image of that and for a split second it made me giggle.

*Swerves*

"Honey, what was that?"
"Oh, that was just Steve from across the street being ejected from the passenger seat. Guess he didn't wear his seatbelt again."

I don't think a seat belt could prevent a tree from taking you out.

^^ it would help from knocking out an innocent bystander from being hit by a body

X2 I always wear mine