“Take Action and Keep Others from Driving Dangerously”

March 24, 2022

Assemblymember Laura Friedman
Chair, Assembly Transportation Committee
1021 O Street, Suite 6310
Sacramento, CA 95814

Re: AB 2000 (Gabriel) Motor vehicle speed contests and exhibitions of speed: offstreet parking facilities – Support

Dear Assemblymember Friedman,

We Save Lives.org is proud to support AB 2000, which would make it a crime for a person to engage in a motor vehicle speed contest in an off-street parking facility or an exhibition of speed in an off-street parking facility, or to aid or abet therein. Last year, the legislature passed AB 3, which sought to combat the alarming rise in street racing in California. AB 2000 seeks to expand on the parity achieved in AB 3 and prohibits the exhibition of motor vehicle speed in a parking lot, if the violation occurred as part of a sideshow.

Last year alone, CHP reported over 25,000 calls involving exhibition of speed and speed contests. Over the past five years, CHP reported a nearly 300% surge in exhibition of speed citations. However, not all exhibition of speed cases end in just citations. According to CHP, 47% of these crashes result in injury, 42% result in property damage, and 11% result in death.

Statewide law enforcement groups have identified driver’s license suspensions as an effective deterrence for illegal street racing activity. In 2019, California courts ordered 349 driver’s license suspensions for speed contests. Of those cases, the recidivism rates dropped by 99%. AB 2000 builds on this knowledge by allowing courts to issue license suspensions upon conviction of exhibition of speed in a parking lot, if the violation was a part of a sideshow.

These are choices drivers make and they should be held accountable for these choices that endanger the lives of themselves and others. AB 2000 will provide courts with a critical and proven tool to deter individuals from engaging in sideshows and save lives.

Sincerely,

Candace Lightner,
Founder and President