Yorkregion.com - Georgina - Victims speak out against street racing
Victims speak out against street racing
Georgina
May 14, 2008 07:24 PM
By: Joe Fantauzzi
As the smell of fuel wafted across the tarmac and sunlight bounced off the chrome and white paint of police vehicles, today, they walked into a grey hangar at Markham’s Buttonville airport.
The shoulder flashes on their uniforms represented law enforcement agencies from across Ontario, local and provincial. They were joined by the victims — those left to tell their stories about how street racing can kill.
When Debbie Virgoe, widow of Innisfil truck driver David Virgoe, spoke during the launch of this year’s Project E.R.A.S.E. (Eliminate Racing Activity on Streets Everywhere), her voice reached the far corners of the hangar.
Mr. Virgoe, 48, was driving a transport truck on Hwy. 400 near Hwy. 89, June 18, 2007, when three vehicles began weaving in and out of traffic. Mr. Virgoe swerved to avoid them and was killed when his truck rolled into a ditch.
“Speed, accompanied by careless and reckless actions, kill far too many innocent people on our highways,” Mrs. Virgoe said, adding those two factors killed her husband and best friend and changed not only her life but the lives of her children and grandchildren forever.
“I no longer have the love and support of my best friend,” she said, adding her life has become a daily struggle to focus and make it through the day.
“Never in my worst nightmare did I ever see my life like this,” she said. “The feelings of loneliness, confusion, anger and frustration felt on a daily basis have consumed all of our lives since David’s death and all of this could have been so easily prevented.”
A 20-year-old Etobicoke man and a 21-year-old Mississauga man face charges of criminal negligence by way of street racing.
Last month, another 20-year-old Etobicoke man pleaded guilty to the same charge.
Nancy Pennyfather, mother of street racing victim Andrea Pike, is no stranger to the scrum of cameras and microphones placed in front of the Project E.R.A.S.E. podium. Ms Pennyfather, whose daughter was killed about eight years ago in Markham, told her story at the event last year.
“A mother should never have to bury her child and, eight years ago, I did just that,” Ms Pennyfather said.
She described the painful process of scripting a victim impact statement during the sentencing of the man found responsible for the crash.
“I miss Andrea every day.”
In an effort to curb aggressive driving, last fall the province introduced legislation, known by many as the street racing law, which permits police to impound cars and suspend licences if drivers are caught doing 50 km/h or more above the posted limit.
Mechanical modifications, which can supercharge vehicles, can render engineering of roads designed for regular driving “relatively useless”, York Regional Police Chief Armand La Barge said.
With his Canadian NASCAR racer among the vehicles parked on the tarmac, John Graham, indicted road racing as the equivalent of organizing a professional hockey game during a public skate with children around. He said professional racers wear fire suits and harnesses while hurtling toward the finish line.
“Racing is great when it is done properly,” Mr. Graham said. “I think it is gutless to be out on the streets racing.”