Street-racing youths drove ‘like complete jerks,’ witness says like, attention, something, Ferrari

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Street-racing youths drove ‘like complete jerks,’ witness says



METRO VANCOUVER - It was just after 3 p.m. on Aug. 31 and Andrea Prout was making her typical commute home from work southbound along Highway 99.

As she approached the George Massey Tunnel, something caught her attention two lanes to her right, in the HOV lane. It was red, and it was moving fast. Prout saw that the red blur, a Ferrari, or perhaps a Lamborghini, wasn’t alone. It was one of several high-end sports cars tearing up the highway, weaving in and out of lanes, and blocking traffic.

Prout’s account is one of several witness affidavits obtained by The Vancouver Sun that help to piece together the events surrounding the now infamous street race, which began at Lansdowne Centre in Richmond and ended in White Rock with the impounding of 13 sports cars worth a total of more than $2 million.

Five of those cars have since been targeted for forfeiture, including two 2010 Lamborghinis and a 2011 Mercedes.

The pack of cars sped ahead, and then slowed to block traffic, creating their own “revolving” cordon to open up a tract of empty roadway ripe for street racing, according to Prout’s statement.

At one point, Prout found herself in the gap ahead of two cars lining up to race. “In my rear-view mirror, I observed the sports cars accelerating rapidly toward me before they roared past my car at a very high rate of speed, I was angry, frustrated, and afraid for my safety,” she said.

By 3:27, she had seen enough. Prout dialed 911 to report the reckless drivers — almost all of whom displayed “N” new driver tags. It turned out that none of the drivers were older than 22, and six of them held novice driver’s licences.

The “situation was getting really dangerous and scary,” she said.

Around the same time another call came in from Erin Buchholz of Langley, who said in her statement that the youths were “driving like complete jerks.”

Buchholz saw a pair of Maseratis and an Audi working together to slow traffic down to around 20 or 30 km/h, she said, forcing a gap for other racers to speed ahead. The vehicles “were lining up together and appeared to be communicating with each other. It was dangerous,” Buchholz said.

Another witness, Kathryn Chacko, estimated the speed of the cars reached 160 km/h, despite heavy traffic.

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“I felt these cars need to be stopped before they caused a serious accident,” Chacko said in her affidavit.

Also among the court documents were previous traffic violations from March 19 involving at least two of the vehicles that took part in the August street race. The same cars had been seen driving dangerously along No. 4 Road in Richmond by a Richmond bylaw officer, whose report to police resulted in charges of unsafe lane changes and excessive speeding.

Out of the 13 vehicles that were originally seized, the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office has targeted a 2010 Nissan GTR, two 2010 Lamborghini Gallardos, a 2005 Aston Martin and a 2011 Mercedes SLS for forfeiture.A date for the forfeiture hearing has not yet been set


Police impound 13 high end vehicles in South Surrey and White Rock on Wednesday August 31, 2011. The following makes were impounded: Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Mercedes, Audi and Nissan R Series. Witnesses said that the speeding cars reached speeds up to 200 km/h. One of the RCMP officers noted that the drivers of the seven vehicles were 20 years and under. According to the RCMP many were still “N’ drivers.



Ferrari 599 GTO goes from zero to 160mph in 19 seconds.