SpicyTricks

Although death is a natural part of life, there are two rules that many can agree on: Friends come and go, but no one should have to watch friends do either in a body bag, and parents should never have to watch their children be buried.

However, as Orange High School knows, death does not follow these rules.

Our community was devastated when robbed of the lives of two juniors, Kacie Chamberlain and Chase Underhill, on December 29, 2012. Both bright, young people with vivacious personalities, it is hard to believe that they could be gone at such a young age.

It’s even harder to believe that students still are drag racing, the cause of the wreck that killed Chamberlain and Underhill.

“Hey, man, what time should I come over to go drag racing?” The overheard phrase that was mentioned so cavalierly shocked me out of a conversation mid sentence as I turned to my two friends who mentioned the race. Both car fanatics and adrenaline junkies, it was something that I had worried about since I met them. However, I did not think that they would be so stupid as to actually go through with it in light of recent events.

The impending race bothered me for the rest of the Friday afternoon. Finally, I told two of my mutual friends about the race, and was appalled by the response I received.

“Oh yeah,” one said. “They’ve been doing that for months.”

According to www.keepthedrive.com, each day an average of 11 teens die and thousands more are injured, often for life, because of largely preventable car crashes. Drag racing certainly falls into this category as two civilian cars race each other on highways, back roads, and everything in between.

The usually deserted rural roads act as the ample playing field for this dangerous game, leaving the culprits of the act generally undetected as they risk their lives and the lives of others. Unfortunately, it is only when tragedy strikes that attention is drawn to the racing lifestyle.

Tragedy is an apt word to use. A 19 year old girl was killed by her boyfriend’s drunken street racing in Atlantic City, NJ on October 23, 2011. Eight people were killed after a car lost control during a back roads drag race and ran into the crowd of 50 people on February 11, 2009 in Prince George County, Maryland. Three people, including a 2 year old, were killed by drag racing in Mecklenburg County, NC in April 2009. The racer’s 13-year-old brother who was sitting in the passenger seat was one of the victims.

According to the National Hot Rod Association, an average of 135 people die in the United States each year from drag racing, and 51 out of every 1000 are injured. Consider that Allstate reports that teens crash four times more than any other age group with an average of 10 deaths per day, and there is a grave situation, to be sure.

If the threat of death of oneself or another person isn’t enough, perhaps criminal charges are enough to dissuade. Not only can the drivers’ licenses be revoked, but the National Hot Rod Association reports jail time and fines up to $1,000 being issued, depending on the state in which the drivers live.

If the need for speed is too great, racers have the option of joining a legal drag racing team in which cars race on closed roads with the proper safety measures. Programs such as the International Hot Rod Association’s Teen Championship Racing and Evo Street Racing’s Beat the Badge race are open and encourage citizens to race legally while still allowing them to get their hit of adrenaline.


According to Allstate Foundation, 3,115 teens died in 2011 from car crashes. Teens with names, families, friends, pets, hopes, and dreams for the future. Anyone interested in illegal drag racing can look up those teens' obituaries and determine whether or not the rush is worth losing so much in such a short amount of time. Anyone interested in illegal drag racing can see for themselves only 7%-10% of reported drag racing accidents in the past ten years, a list that goes on for 25 pages.

Anyone interested in illegal drag racing who attends Orange High School should think back only three months to the faces of their friends, teachers, and classmates as the entire school felt the grief that goes along with losing a community member. Anyone interested in illegal drag racing who attends Orange High School should think back to the look on their parents’ faces as they felt only a small percentage of the pain that is felt by a parent who lost their child.

When I returned to school on the following Monday, it turned out that both of my friends were fine from their racing encounter - this time. However, that did not stop me from checking the news multiple times over the weekend, expecting to see their names in a headline next to the words “killed in car crash.” Illegal drag racing, and all other forms of dangerous and reckless driving, need to be stopped by us, the friends, peers, and classmates of the people involved. Cars are not toys, and driving is not a game; we do not need anymore deaths proving this to be true.  

Commit to safe driving by taking the Allstate Friends for Life Pledge, as follows: “Today, I make this pledge: Not one of my friends will get hurt or die in a car crash. Not when I’m behind the wheel. And not when I’m a passenger in their car. I will drive for our freedom, for all the cool things we have planned, and for our futures. If I’m a passenger, I will defy peer pressure, I will speak up, and I will always have their back. I PLEDGE:  NOT MY FRIENDS. NOT TODAY. NOT TOMORROW. NOT EVER.”