At 9:45 last Friday morning, a 15-year-old girl was street racing a white Mercedes E-Class against a green Lamborghini Urus SUV along Highway 2A near Meadowvale Road in Scarborough. Not at midnight, in some empty industrial park. Not two fools in clapped-out Infiniti G35s playing Fast & Furious behind a warehouse. Nope, at 9:45 in the morning, when normal people are driving to work, making deliveries, taking their kids to the dentist, and generally believing the roadway will not become a NASCAR track.
Dashcam video released to the media shows the Lamborghini and Mercedes charging through traffic at breakneck speed before the Mercedes lost control. The car then struck a Ford F-150 carrying a 44-year-old man and an 11-month-old baby, went off the road and slammed into a tree at speed. The baby and pickup truck driving dad suffered minor injuries. The 15-year-old driver and her 24-year-old male passenger were critically injured. The Lamborghini driver fled.
That’s the part of this story that just smells wrong. Who was the 24-year-old man sitting beside a child too young to hold even an Ontario G1 Licence? Police have not said. Boyfriend? Relative? Owner of the Mercedes? Every possibility comes with its own additional level of disgrace. If he gave her the keys and encouraged the race, he is an idiot.
The visible facts are brutal. A15-year-old girl racing an E-Class against a Urus in morning traffic, despite an adult beside her, innocent people—including a baby—were involved in a wreck because of her reckless driving.
We at Demaras Racing often share stories of drivers getting caught doing stupid stuff on public roads, usually filed under the “Take It To The Track” heading. We all like speed and fast cars—they’re not inherently evil. And we truly believe that hooligan drivers need a safe outlet for what on public roads is dangerous driving.
But this time…this event seems different. The careless disregard for human life is just astounding. It’s exactly the anti-car lobby will use to push for ever-tightening regulations. And they’ll be right, too.