LEGISLATORS TARGET SPEED TRAFFICKERS ILLEGAL STREET RACING RESULTING IN INJURY WOULD BE FELONY UNDER BILL.

Byline: HARRISON SHEPPARD Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- State legislators are considering a crackdown on illegal street racing, an activity that has killed several San Fernando Valley teens in recent years.

The bill by Assemblyman John Benoit, R-Riverside, would allow authorities to file felony charges against the driver in an illegal street race if another person is injured. Such incidents currently are classified as misdemeanors.

The bill also would set a prison sentence of four years to 10 years for drivers found guilty of causing someone's death in an illegal street race.

``This dangerous activity puts drivers at risk and others who are not involved at risk of serious injury or death,'' Benoit said.

In the San Fernando Valley, street racing has been a problem for decades, glamorized by movies since at least the James Dean era and recently resurging due to the 2001 film ``The Fast and the Furious'' and its sequel.

About four years ago, city officials and police clamped down on street racing through a series of enforcement measures, including an ordinance by City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel that allowed police to confiscate and destroy vehicles used in street racing and charge spectators with a misdemeanor.

Last year, Los Angeles County passed a similar ordinance.

Since then, street racing has declined in the Valley, although it has not disappeared.

``We unfortunately continue to have deaths in the San Fernando Valley relating to accidents caused by this activity,'' said Deputy Chief Michel Moore, head of the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Bureau.

``I'm also confident the tools we have to go after this problem were never better than today.''

He said large, organized street races attended by hundreds of spectators are less common in the Valley now, but that spontaneous races still occur.

At least eight people died in the Valley in 2004 in street-racing incidents, according to news reports.

According to the California Highway Patrol, there have been more than 4,000 citations issued statewide for street racing since 2001, with nearly 500 crashes and more than 40 deaths.

Greuel said she supports stiffening the penalties for illegal street racing.

``I think street racing terrorizes our neighborhood and kills our children,'' Greuel said. ``The penalties need to reflect how serious this issue is.''

Benoit's bill, AB 2190, was heard in the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, where a San Diego prosecutor argued that the current law is flawed.

The prosecutor noted a recent incident in which a street racer crashed into a passing car, putting a teenage passenger into a coma and leaving him unable to walk when he awoke.

The driver could only be sentenced to six months in jail under current statute.

But several Democratic committee members and representatives of public defender associations expressed concerns that the proposed bill does not distinguish between how serious an injury -- ranging from a cut finger to death -- would have to be for a driver to be charged with a felony.

Benoit said he would return with an amended version focusing the bill on serious bodily injury.

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com

[phone]