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....April 15, 2:46 PM |
| A Need To Stop The Speed
By Aaron Rutkoff The half-mile stretch of Francis Lewis Boulevard extending south from the Long Island Expressway has no traffic lights or major intersections. The smooth asphalt of this wide roadway cuts straight through a narrow swath of Cunningham Park, just west of the Clearview Expressway, where there are no houses and few buildings.
This anonymous four-lane strip presents the perfect opportunity for hobbyist speedsters in customized cars and teens tooling around in the family sedan late at night to push their vehicles to the limit, racing just for thrills. The drag racing phenomenon on Frannie Lou Speedway, as the street is commonly known among neighborhood residents, has been going on for decades, especially on warm summer nights and during school vacations. But local authorities and elected officials believed the problem to be significantly reduced, with fewer reported incidents each year, after an extensive campaign in the mid-90s to arrest street racers and confiscate their vehicles. That was what several Queens politicians said – at least in private – on April 9, barely twelve hours after a teenage couple was struck by a pair of cars racing southbound on Francis Lewis, resurrecting concerns over the notorious street racing strip. The near-fatal impact launched both teens some 200 feet down the road, with serious injuries as a result of the high-speed crash. In the wake of the tragedy, the outraged city and state politicians vowed to bring speed control measures to Francis Lewis and renewed calls for speed enforcement cameras, which are now banned under state laws. The Catalyst Saverio Sportella and his girlfriend Christina Vroulis, both 14, were crossing Francis Lewis Boulevard at 9 p.m. April 8, along with two other friends who escaped unharmed. The group was on its way to see a film at a cineplex just a few blocks away when two vehicles – a red Ford Taurus and a black Honda – struck the young couple before racing off. Both teens were taken to New York Hospital in Queens, where Vroulis was listed in critical but stable condition. Sportella was initially listed in serious condition and was later transferred to Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. Witnesses on the scene told reporters and police that Vroulis had been thrown nearly 30 feet into the air. Neither vehicle made any attempt to stop, witnesses said, and no skid marks were apparent on the roadway the next day. “You could hear the thud,” said David DiPadova, who was eating at the nearby Blue Bay Diner at the time of the crash. “We came out expecting to see a multiple car wreck.” The next day, investigators recovered one vehicle believed to be involved in the incident and had interviewed the owner, who called police after her boyfriend returned the vehicle with a smashed windshield, explaining that it had been in an accident. The owner was not charged, though the red Ford has been impounded at the 107th Precinct. Police sources said the car owner had identified the driver to investigators, but no arrests have been made. Police are still searching for the black Honda, believed to have front-end damage from the impact. Investigators are also reviewing a security tape from a surveillance camera outside of St. Francis Preparatory School, located near the intersection, a police source said. The Scene Despite the apparent decline of drag racing busts on Francis Lewis in recent years, neighborhood residents complain that dangerous speed battles still plague the infamous strip. Ironically, the Boulevard became a magnet for street racers only after transportation crews repaired the inhospitable street in the 1970s. “It all started 25 years ago when they resurfaced the boulevard,” recalled local District Manager Diane Cohen. “Before that, it was all potholes.” “I used to call the cops all the time,” said homeowner Ann Marie Cangialosi. She lives directly across the street from a nearby 7-Eleven, a well-known meeting spot for racers. “On a summer night in July, it’s the biggest hang out,” she said. “Just picture the whole parking lot with rows and rows of cars with music blasting.” The noise is enough to shake the lamps in her home, she said. Sherry Lopiter regularly travels along Francis Lewis around midnight on the way to her night shift, where she has seen customized hotrods unloaded from flatbed trucks. “They ran me off the road a couple of times,” she said. “It’s very, very scary.” |
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