The fast and the dead

Last weekend two motorcyclists were killed when they crashed into a retaining wall in the middle of the night apparently racing along Middle Harbor road. It's hard to get many details but it sounds like they were part of a larger group racing along the drag strip. When driving along Middle Harbor road one has to wonder why anyone would build such a perfect place for drag racing without some means of closing it off. It's a very wide, straight, flat stretch of road in a well lit, industrial area. I'm pretty sure races go on there fairly regularly but you only hear about them when someone dies in an accident or is shot. If not for the accidents and the shootings there wouldn't be anything terribly wrong with street racing. But unfortunately people end up dead. So why doesn't the police force crack down on the racing scene? Some answers are found in Stephen Buel's article for the East Bay Express. Written a few years ago, Buel gives a first hand account of a race he attended and the horrifying accident he witnessed. The racers of course are always one step ahead of the police, listening in to the police radios, cars always parked head out for easy fleeing. But why can't the road be gated off at night with a security guard stationed to let in legitimate business traffic? Surely the Port of Oakland has enough money for such a venture. And I would think there would be some benefit to the area business in not having gangs of street racers around their property at night. The City has much larger problems than stopping illegal racing, and I'm guessing the Port has certain restrictions it has to follow as to homeland security and the fact that it doesn't own the road. But one would think there is some way for the two organizations to work together to make Oakland just a little bit safer.