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NEWS |
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Fun,
pride, money - The world of illegal road-racers
Sunday, 3.45 a.m, Tuen Mun. Everything was quiet. The streets were almost deserted save for the odd taxi passing by every now and then. Suddenly, a low rumble echoed through the air. It grew louder each second, like the predatory growl of a cheetah. A screech, and a car swung round the corner, tyres squealing. The streetlights were reflected in its chrome finish, creating the effect of a dazzling firebrand shooting past. Hong Kong seems to be making itself a name as the newest circuit for street racers to conquer. Thanks to the local production of The Fast and The Furious films, underground street racing has acquired a new, glamourous look. Every night, drivers would battle it out for the coveted distinction of being the ultimate street racer. "It's not only money, it's satisfaction,?said Mr Lo, the owner of a car tuning store and a well-known underground car racer. Even though speed cameras are located at many locations in Hong Kong, Mr Lo and his friends would often manage to get away by using some self-installed vehicular device that warn them when a camera is approaching. Eric Ma, owner of a car audio and accessories store, explained how the speed camera detector worked. "It starts beeping whilst getting close to any speed cameras," he said. "Drivers will slow down once they notice the noise. I do not think anyone would mind spending $500 on this." For someone like Mr Lo, it was a valuable investment, although he said sometimes he would still ignore the warnings. "Sometimes when I'm in a race and going in more than200km/hr, I'm just not really bothered to slow down." He said he would break more laws to get off the hook. "Instead, I’d get a friend who has a driver's license to take over my place when the police charges arrive with those speed cameras photos. I will pay the friends for the fine and also $1,000for each point deducted from the license." "My highest record of being captured by the speed camera is six times. Once I had to leave my car at the side of the highway and lied to the police that someone has stolen my car." Kevin Chan, a dentist by day, has another way of dealing with the speed cameras. "I swap the numbers of both my front and back plates. For instance, if my number is 3148, my front one will be 3184 and my back one 3814. If any police ask me about it I will just pretend I just discovered some garage people have printed my number plates wrong," he said. He said his “greatest satisfaction" came from fooling the others, both car racers and the police. He needed to be extra vigilant as he needed the race winnings and he found the lure of gambling too much to resist. "Although my car looks extremely regular and boring, every single piece of the engine is tuned well enough to go up to 220km/hr. When I meet car racing lovers from forums or on streets, I ask them to start abet," he said. He explained that whoever he asked would agree to a bet of at least $2,000 between them, as they all thought his car was 'ordinary', and therefore would be much slower than any of the others. But Mr Chan has always had the last laugh. "So far I haven’t been defeated by anyone yet and I put all my winning money into upgrading my car," he said.
A police officer from the traffic department, who preferred to remain anonymous, said, "Our team is sent out to put road blocks on Tuen Mun highway five times a week, a least. We would usually set up one team at a pedestrian bridge to capture the speeders, then the other team will drive up to them on motorcycles, ask them to pull over and record their driving license details." He added that while they all knew it was hard to stop the speeders, they could at least prevent them from using other drivers' identity. According to the Police Traffic Statistics, around 250traffic accidents occur each week, and at least 25% of these accidents are due to speed driving. There are more than 270 Speed Enforcement spots and about 50Red Light Camera spots distributed throughout Hong Kong. Given the popularity of the private speed camera detectors, it would be thought that atleast the racers would slow down when approaching these locations, but according to the police officer this was not the case. "In my experience, those speed camera detectors are only for regular drivers who would only sometimes go slightly over the speed limit. Those real speeders wouldn't care about slowing down. They would think to do so would be bad for their car engine," he said. When TYR asked him about any experiences he had with the underground street racers, he said, "Once my colleague and I were chasing after a Honda Altezza , which had obviously been upgraded. It went up to nearly200 km/hr and we finally lost it. The day after this car's owner came to the police station and claimed his car was stolen. We knew he was the driver the night before, but we did not have enough evidence to charge him with anything. " TYR has tried to get in touch with the Police Public Relations Branch (PPRB) but has not yet received any further comments on the issue. - EDITED BY MARZIYA MOHAMMEDALI |
The police apparently found it difficult to catch such
offenders. However, upgraded measures are in place to try and minimise
these illegal activities.