Fulton County commissioners are considering passing an ordinance that would target those who gather to watch illegal street racing and driving exhibitions.
County commissioners discussed the proposed measure at their Wednesday meeting, days before Gov. Brian Kemp came out saying he supported new penalties against anyone organizing, promoting or participating in street racing.
Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman, who represents part of southern Fulton, brought forward the county ordinance, which would punish the hundreds of attendees who learn where and when to gather often from social media posts.
“We rarely are able to catch the racers or the person doing the exhibition and we have all these spectators that current law doesn’t give us any way to deal with, so this ordinance would allow us to cite people simply for coming to a location to watch this illegal event,” Fulton police’s Chief Wade Yates.
Cities in the county — like Roswell, Sandy Springs and South Fulton — have passed their own versions. The city of Atlanta, which has the biggest problem with street racing, made this move in August.
Fulton County police only have jurisdiction along the roughly 7-mile stretch of unincorporated land along Fulton Industrial Boulevard. But Yates told commissioners that those commercial roads are exactly what need attention.
“We have a lot of very straight, very wide roads designed for trucks and it makes it just a great place to do these reckless driving exhibitions,” Yates said. “They love coming to Fulton Industrial Boulevard because of the size of the roads and, for the street racing, the straightness of the roads.”
Abdur-Rahman said she saw the tail end of a driving exhibition where someone doing doughnuts missed spectators “by a hair of an inch.”
“We should not wait until somebody has either passed away or lost a limb because these individuals are doing very dangerous, different-type tricks and we have seen close misses,” she said.
The measure is expected to come back for a final vote by commissioners at their next scheduled meeting on March 3.
Credit: WSBTV Videos
