Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Death Race 2006


Call me a sick puppy for this one. Front page headline in SF reads "Driver's Rampage." Its worth the read, trust me. If you were around in 1975 you may remember the movie "Death Race 2000," where hit and run driving is no longer a felony, it's Thee National Sport.

Here's the plot:
In 2000 America has been rebuilt by one man, the President has become an emperor. With this power he created the Race. Every year violent role-playing psychopaths are placed behind the wheels of high performance killing machines and sent across the country. Their goal? Finish alive with the most points from running down as many pedestrians as possible and it's all perfectly legal. See a line of doctors and nurses on the sidewalk? Thump, thump, thump: 110 points.

points are scored for every person killed, with different point values depending on the age, gender and importance of the person killed. According to the movie, the point system appears to be as follows:

* Male adult: 20
* Male teenager: 40
* Male infant/toddler: 70
* Female (any age): +10 point bonus
* Senior citizen (regardless of gender): 100


Back to the future in San Francisco, a seemingly normal young man got behind the wheel of an SUV and began a driving rampage that would leave one dead and fourteen injured. He started by collecting his one casualty in Fremont then must of figured the pickings were better in the big city. In San Francisco, with all the jaywalking homeless, outdoor cafe sitters and window shopping tourist available, our deranged driver suffered ecstasy overload and blew a fuse. He began his game of picking off people with his SUV and didn't stop until police rammed his car and pulled him out unfazed by the carnage he'd caused.

If points were being given for victims he wouldn't have scored in the top ten of a death race. But from the looks of it he was driving for bonus points when he hit an FBI agent out on a lunchtime stroll. It was said that there were many near misses of pedistrians, maybe our driver needs an eye exam.

In one case he hit two persons, then when the ambulance arrived and medics were attending to the injured, he returned to finish the job. Like a predator taunting his prey. Witnesses, and there's always witnesses after the crime, say when he rode past the second time he looked them in the eye with a hateful stare. He was probably mad that they'd taken points away from him by helping the injured.

One witness describes what he saw:

"I was in my car coming south on Filmore and the light turned green. Two seconds after my car was in the intersection I saw the SUV coming 35 or 40 mph and hit the main in the crosswalk. His body was thrown 25 feet. His body stuck to the grille of the car and was tossed off as the car turned right. If the guy had not turned right I believe this guy would have been run over completely."

Now, with the driver in custody, I wonder if pedestrians in San Francsico will pay more attention when crossing the streets? Mind you our death race driver scored points by driving on sidewalks as well. Suprisingly, he didn't score points by hitting any bicyclists although he did demolish a parked bicycle on the sidewalk. Boy, I bet he'll be pissed when he learns "Critical Mass" was just last Friday.

For the full story of this deathrace fiasco go to San Francisco Chronicle's "Driver's Rampage-Chaso In The Streets."

I seriously see a Hollywood Production coming out of this horror. Where is David Carradine these days?

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