Operation prevents street-racing gathering just outside Modesto

Tipped off to a planned gathering of up to several hundred vehicles for street racing east of the Modesto Airport on Sunday, authorities stopped 122 vehicles and issued 90 citations.

Stanislaus County sheriff’s deputies and Modesto police and California Highway Patrol officers worked the 300 block of Codoni Avenue for five hours. In addition to the citations, 12 vehicles were towed off from the street for violations ranging from suspended licenses to unsafe driving, unsafe vehicles and weapons violations. Two people were arrested and booked on various charges, Modesto Officer Billy Boyle said.

The bulk of the citations were for modifications that made cars illegal for street operation, Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Heather Graves said. The modifications violate emissions regulations and noise ordinances, she said. Owners have a short time to return the cars to being street legal. If they don’t, or if they reinstall modifications that make the vehicles unsafe, the cars are subject to towing and impoundment, Boyle said.

Officers found vehicles that had safety components to make them lighter, he said. Other violations included bald tires, modified ignitions and visibility issues because of window decals.

While street racing isn’t common within the city, Graves said, Boyle noted an increase over the past several years of these types of unsanctioned racing events throughout the county. There are several known locations, Boyle said, including portions of the West Side, a spot just inside Ceres, a place off Pelandale Avenue, and near the Crossroads at Riverbank shopping center at Claribel and Oakdale roads.

Street racing, drag racing, drifting and other forms of illegal driving create a dangerous environment for drivers, passengers, spectators and bystanders, Boyle said.

He recently saw a local video on the Internet that shows spectators following a car that was “drifting,” or spinning doughnuts. “One guy took his eyes off the car for a second and got smacked by it, knocked to the ground,” Boyle said. Fortunately, the man got up and appeared uninjured. “It’s still extremely dangerous because you basically have a 3,000 pound missile, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can go into the crowd.”

In August, the California Highway Patrol investigated a fatal collision on Highway 99 in which street racing was suspected, Boyle said. And unsafe speed – whether racing or not – was among the primary factors in the 2,158 vehicle collisions in Modesto last year, he said.

A Dec. 21 crash on Sisk Road that killed a Tracy driver and his cousin and badly hurt another cousin initially was thought racing-related. Daniel Garcia-Velazquez, 23, was driving with passengers Ruben Velazquez Jr., 17, and Velazquez’s 6-year-old sister, both of Salida, north on Sisk at high speed that afternoon.

Garcia-Velazquez lost control of the Mustang, crashing into a Chevrolet pickup and then a Jeep traveling south on Sisk.

Speed, weather conditions and an unsafe turning movement – “He lost control of the car while changing lanes.” – were determined to be the factors in that crash, Boyle said. “There was no substantiated evidence that he was racing another vehicle.” The car also did not appear to be modified, he said, but “that was a very fast car as it was.”

Sunday’s operation, which occurred on industrial property just outside the city limits, was “very successful because we were able to prevent a large gathering,” Boyle said.

When authorities heard where the racing was planned, they contacted the property owner and business owners, including Frito Lay, and had trespass letters signed. When such a gathering occurs there again, drivers also can be charged with trespassing, Boyle said.

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 1:08 PM with the headline "Operation prevents street-racing gathering just outside Modesto."