Can someone tell me why I should feel sorry for adults ages 30+ who stand in the middle of a dark road at 3:00 a.m. to watch cars illegally race? I would expect this from a group of 17 year-olds, but not a 61 year-old man! C'mon!

I made a mistake in my other post. I meant that drag racing takes place EAST of Bladensburg Road on V Street NE, not WEST, in DC.

raodwarrior- come on now, you can not say that you travel 210, if you say police NEVER patrol and ticket in this area. Please do not go blaming the police! Next you'll be wanting a maned station on this road.

I drive for a living...about 120,000 miles a year...all hours of the day and night...cover a 9 state and DC area...if you folks could ride with me for just one week, you would wonder how anyone could stand it, and most of you would be scared out of your wits to see what I see...210 has always been a "high-speed racecourse"...I have never seen, NEVER, any police enforcement on this road...as a matter of fact, PG County has the worst traffic enforcement (read that none) of anyplace I go. That may be one of the reasons these morons have no fear of street racing...motorcycles included. It is a horrible human tragedy, but everyone of these people made a decision to engage in an illegal and obviously very stupid activity...you know, there are consequences to our actions...sometimes we pay and sometimes we skate...there time was up.

You have car racing on V Street NE, west of Bladensburg Road, in the District late at night. It is in a warehouse district that is empty at night, which I guess is why the police tolerate it. It is just a matter of time before there is a bad accident there, though.

Family members of those hurt and killed, and some spectators are raising He!! on TV this morning, because cops don't stop drag racing in that area.

Wait a minute.... why are those clowns out standing in, on, and around the roads at 3-4 a.m. watching cars race? Give me a break...

I'm sorry those folks lost family and friends, but seems these folks need to step back and inventory their own actions.

I suppose the dregs of the legal council community are busy contacting the families of deceased and injured, looking for a big pay day, huh?

Fredman, I whole heartedly agree with every word. I've been on a rip and tear about this here in Kentucky, blogging and spreading as much info as I can, exposing those involved etc. Just a couple of months ago I posted about this very thing happening, how illegal (not to even mention the stupidity of it all) it is to do it, watch it, promote it, support it, sponsor it. This is a sad tragedy but not unexpected.

What gets me is that every one of those people who were interviewed didn?t think they did anything wrong. Everyone one of those people broke the law by participating in the crime of street racing. By being there, they them self?s are criminals. The two who I saw interviewed announced that they broke the law. One guy said ?we came and expected a clean race, my brother didn?t deserve to die this way?. You and both broke the law. If you stand in the middle of RT 210 and don?t expect to be hit by a car you are mentally ill. Another lady said her 62 year old father was hit. He was there, his daughter was there and her kid was there. A whole family participating in a crime. They should interview each person there, get there statements, then charge each and every one of them and make them pay the maximum fine for the crimes. Each person interviewed didn?t take responsibility for this, they, yet again. Try to blame some one else. I will only be happy if each person there was charged. That is the only way to stop this. They are all guilty and should be punished. It amazes me that they all think they are innocent. Fine them and maybe they will wake up.

Standing in the middle of a dark road is never a good idea, with that being said standing in the middle of 210 is never a good idea.

Crystal Gaines has my vote of mother of the year for year.

Well I live and work in the area, I drive for a living, and I travel up and down 210 several times a day, and let me tell ya this is terrifing! I will never forget any of this. I am gonna be scared from now on. And I have been doing some surfing and found that the child out was 13 years old! Someone should yank her parent car for having her out there that late at night. Now she has to live with her daughter seeing her grandfather in pieces on the road. Shame on you!

I am so saddened for all involved. A lot of coments were made already about the races of the people involed. What about the humans that where involved. yep we are all humans and we sometimes make dumb mistakes. Like the drivers that raced away just to find out later some of the people that where rooting for them are now dead, so who won that race. I wish lots of good tidings to everyone whom this will be a very long sad memory. I lost a nephew a couple of years ago to a street race gone bad in charles county. I also lost cousin more than 10 years ago to a race gone bad in laurel on route 197. It starts with each and everyone of us. Live our lives responsibley and set good examples. Many families seem to have lost good old values, like calling your elder ms. or mr. such and such.

See what breaking the law gets you. Those racing and those watching are criminals. And ole girl that had her child out here should ashamed of herself and needs to be looked at very closely by CPS. Who takes that child with them in the freezing cold...to break the law?? But being that she lost her father, I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

When you go bear hunting, sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you...

Its very sad. Tragedies like this are the result of poor decisions combined with fate. Fate you cannot control. Being out at 3 am you can control, watching an illegal race, you can control.

the capacity of the commentators on this site to rationalize and excuse illegal behavior is unbelievable. There is no difference between watching and participating in an illegal drag race.

I'm very sorry for all the families and their loss - however - sorry this is ghetto. I don't care how many years PG County rednecks have been doing this it's illegal. And this is the cost of illegal behavior. 8 people needlessly dead. Whoever was in the car that plowed into the crowd has to live with this for the rest of their lives because this group of people BROKE THE LAW. The truck driver who came up on the accident and may have unintentionally run over victims in the road has to live with this for the rest of his life because this group of people chose to BREAK THE LAW. I'm sorry for the girl who lost her father but what was she doing out at 3:40 AM by the way with her CHILD in that bitter cold? This is all so tragic over DRAG RACING? Seriously, you don't have anything better to do with your time? Bet you do now...........

Who drives Crown Victoria's? Old people and cops. Not many old people out driving around at 2:30 am. Who drives white Crown Vic's with cheesy hub caps? Cops. Who might drive up on the scene of illegal activity with their lights off? Cops. It sure looks like an unmarked police car to me. I sure hope I'm wrong.

Well if everyone thinks its is ghetto that is their right. But people have been racing all over Charles, Southern PG and Calvert back roads for years. It only becomes a problem when something like this happens. If the driver of the crown vic did have its lights off they were just as much at fault the racers and crowd itself. I have watched races on those roads myself when I was a teenager. It can be dangerous and people need to be careful. God bless those families who lost love ones last night.

They should charge everyone that was racing with manslaughter or reckless endangerment. They should also take the license of all who were racing. As far as those watching the illegal activity, they deserve what they got. Bunch of morons!!!

It's no wonder the remarks here make no sense. The commenters don't bother to read the articles nor the other comments carefully. And it's "ghetto" btw.

You can't blame all of this on the drag racers, you have to also blame those who WATCH the race. They knew the risk by standing near by. You can't blame young kids older people do this also. For the Perttyboy he thinks Indy 500 is nice an all but that is on TV and you pay money sometimes big bucks just to watch. Just like Nascar which is a highly watch race bu you also pay big bucks to watch but that Nascar all you see is American junk car company racing which is boring.

Dear CHS get a grip. The 27yr old could not help he father because her child was with her...3:30 in the morning .They are either getto or white trash. When you envolve yourself in unlawful activities you are subject to the conseuences. Ps a 61 year old should be in bed at that hour not involved in illegal activity.

I think before we rush to judgment we need to wait to hear more about this unfortunate event. Most are assuming it was young punk kids, however, one of the onlookers that was killed was a 61 year old grandfather. His 27 year old daughter was there too, along with her very young son. In the Miami Herald commenters are saying it was Cubans or spoiled white teenagers from the 'burbs. At this point, the general public really knows nothing.

Well this is really sad and this was just plain STUPID. All the lives lost because of some morons who get a rush out of drag racing. It absolutely makes no sense to me. If I wanted so see races like this I would simply go to the Indy 500 where it's safe for viewers. Even at that I wouldn't sit close to the tracks. Young punk kids have no respect for themselves or others.. maybe someday they will hand out a pill to morons to wisen em up.. until then it's a repeat situation.

How many deaths that are more senseless must we have in Southern Maryland before something is done? The state of Maryland is so worried about teenage drivers. Where do they think teenage drivers obtain their bad habits? Perhaps from the idiot adults who were condoning this type of irresponsible behavior? Why was there a grandfather at three in the morning watching drag racing? Why wasn't he stopping it? Why would a mother have her child out at 3:00 a.m. on a cold night? Child Protective Services are you paying attention? Maryland lawmakers think that changing the laws to affect future drivers will correct the problems today. These future drivers are not problem it?s the adults that are allowing for this driving by doing it themselves. In May 2007, a 19-year-old injured a family of five, killing one of them. The State said they could not change the timing of the traffic lights on 301 because ?it will hurt the tourist industry?. What?s the excuse going to be for why they did not know this was going on 210? Their "solution' is to change the driving age to 18? Will the next fix be changing it to 21?

The high schools refuse to allow our law enforcement officers go into the high schools and educate our teenagers in assemblies because it?s not a MSA testing subject. We need the assemblies in school reminding our youth of the dangers of reckless driving since their parents seem not to as well as other adults in their family. Why does the state not allow a judge to take away the drivers license following a driving incident resulting in a death? Maryland government wake up before it?s one of you! Put some teeth in our laws and provide adequate law enforcement to enforce protection on our roads.

Although street racing is stupid, we're still talking about lives lost. Racing can be a great adrenalin rush, for racers and spectators, but please if your going to race do it at the track. The Washington DC area has three(Capital, MIR, and Hagerstown)

Route 210 may be a lawless stretch of road but it sounds to me like these people were putting on a show and had spectators on the sidelines. I don't feel sorry for any of them. Anyone there was participating and just too bad what happened to them I am so glad no innocent person was killed - could have been an entire family wiped out - thank God for that. I surely agree with you amt!

stupid stupid stupid - now tax dollars spent due to some idiot and all the other idiots watching - with their kids??? reckless indangerment, contribution to deliquency of a minor, child abuse, and thats just the begining. I do not feel sory for the crowd watching . to condone recklessnes and watch is participation. sad that people had to die, but they are all guilty by association.

Rte 210 is a lawless stretch of road with people often going 70, 80 or faster, racing in and out of traffic I feel sorry for those whose families were destroyed but I also have to ask why the lady was there with her father AND child @ 3:40 AM? Is that good parenting?