County’s Drag-Race Death Toll

Hollywood’s romanticized view of a young, macho drag racer crossing the finish line and winning the respect of his peers or his girlfriend has little meaning for the families and friends of at least 10 people who have been killed in such county races since 1984.

Statistics kept by law enforcement agencies do not separate drag racing from other accidents involving excessive speed, so there may have been more county victims than the 10 identified from news accounts.

The drivers were not always the ones who died. For example, Cori Wang was killed instantly when an Acura in which she was riding spun out of control and slammed into a light pole April 11 on a winding, dipping stretch of Placentia Avenue near Estancia High School in Costa Mesa.

Her sister, Pei Wang, who was driving, suffered head and internal injuries.

The Acura was given to Pei Wang by her father, who said at the time of the accident: “She would never race or speed. She was such a good girl. People should not assume they were speeding just because they are teen-agers.”

But Costa Mesa police told a different story. Investigator Floyd Waldron said there was evidence that Pei was drag racing with another car driven by her 16-year-old boyfriend. Waldron said skid marks indicated that the Acura was traveling 60 to 65 m.p.h.

“They think it’s kind of exciting,” California Highway Patrol officer Wayne Fox said of teen-age fascination with drag racing. “They get a car they think is (great), and they want to test it out.”

By far, most of those caught racing are teen-agers and people in their early 20s, Fox said.

Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Robert Rivas said: “I don’t care how well you train your kids . . . when they feel the power of the engine, they’re going to want to test it. We can educate and educate and educate, but there’s still that curiousity there.”

Apparently it was there Aug. 23, when a car that witnesses said was drag racing crashed into a tree in the center divider on Lampson Avenue in Seal Beach and burned, killing its driver, a 19-year-old Seal Beach man.

Other examples:

- Oct. 1, 1988--A 17-year-old youth lost control of his Ford Mustang during a drag race in La Habra. The car was sheered in half when it hit a utility pole. Driver Andrew Meza of Rowland Heights, was thrown out; he died later at a hospital.

- Jan. 30, 1985--Gregory Goodspeed, 26 of Westminster, decided to drag-race his motorcycle in competition with a friend, police said. As Knott Street curved eastward, Goodspeed lost control of his Yamaha, hit a curb, then struck a parked car. He was wearing a helmet but died at the scene.

- Jan. 21, 1984--A UCLA student, Ha Quoc Vu, 25, was killed while adding oil to his disabled Volkswagen on a shoulder of the San Diego Freeway. The CHP said a car swerved onto the shoulder at about 80 m.p.h. and fatally struck the student and injured his companion, who barely dived out of the way. Witnesses said that Jerry James York, 23, of Huntington Beach was racing his Chevrolet El Camino against his roommate’s Chevrolet Caprice.

- Dec. 2, 1983--Randy Craft and Jeffrey Thomas were racing at least 80 m.p.h. on Adams Street near Newland Street in Huntington Beach, police said, when both cars, seconds apart, struck an auto driven by Gloria Chang as she was turning onto Newland. Chang’s car was hurled about 375 feet, and she was killed.

On March 6, 1985, they pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter and were sentenced to 60 days in jail and three years’ probation. Chang was a mother of five.

Sheriff’s Lt. Rivas said the inclination to drag-race weakens as people mature: “It seems like everyone goes through a phase (with driving fast). Let’s just hope for most people it’s a short phase.”