He raced … and lived to regret it
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Families mourn road racing deaths
A grainy prom photograph encapsulates the bond Adam Bhagiratti and Geetesh Singh shared.
Jul 08, 2009 04:30 AM
Jesse McLean
STAFF REPORTERNauman Nusrat weaved his Pontiac Grand Am through a series of cars, his speedometer wavering near the 180 kilometre per hour mark. The cars carrying his friends were nearby, zigzagging their way through Highway 400’s heavy traffic.
Nusrat had been racing steadily for more than 40 kilometres.
“I just had a feeling of competing with my friends. I was caught up in the moment,” he said yesterday about the events of June 18, 2007.
“I wasn’t expecting I would crash. I never thought, like, what happened would happen, actually.”
Just south of Highway 89, Nusrat, then 19, lost control and struck a Jeep, sparking a chain reaction of collisions. Trucker David Virgoe steered his rig toward an embankment to avoid other vehicles. The truck rolled into the ditch.
The 48-year-old was killed instantly.
Nusrat says he doesn’t remember much about the crash. He had street-raced a few times before, always with college friends.
Each time, it just felt like a blur.
“It’s hard to describe. I didn’t feel real,” he said. “I feel so much remorse. I’m ashamed of what happened.”
The issue of street racing was raised again, after a deadly crash on the Don Valley Parkway Monday night that left two men dead and a woman seriously injured.
Jim Parkhurst, director of drag racing at Shannonville Motorsport Park, 20 kilometres east of Belleville, says the crashes are the result of unskilled drivers getting lost in the moment.
“It’s the thrill, the excitement. You’re not thinking of the consequences,” he said. "One minute, you’re having the time of your life. Then poof, it’s over.
“Everything is shattered.”
He said the 1970s were the heydays of street racing, where different Ontario cities had their own crews that would compete, their engines roaring on the outskirts of towns. Kingston versus Markham. Oakville versus Etobicoke.
“People were trying to show off, to prove themselves,” he said, admitting he participated in street races in his early 20s.
Then a person was killed during a multi-car race outside Belleville and he quit.
For the last eight years, he has been organizing drag racing competitions at Shannonville. Once or twice a month, drivers register their vehicles – everything from trucks to modified sports cars – and duke it out on the track.
“That’s the kind of things you want. Not on the highway after you’ve come home from work,” he said.
Mark Tay is a college student who organizes races at a track in Dunnville, about 70 kilometres south of Hamilton.
Tay said he and friends have no tolerance for street racers.
“When you’re on the track, you’re putting yourself at risk. But on the streets, it’s different,” he said.
Still, Tay can understand how it’s easy to lose yourself when you’re driving full-throttle.
“It’s like a video game, a sport. You’re pushing yourself to the limit,” he said.
Nusrat, however, will never experience that again.
The Toronto man pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death, driving without insurance and having forged insurance documents. He was sentenced to two years of house arrest – on top of the 11 months he had already spent in jail – along with a lifetime driving prohibition.
“I don’t have any wish to drive (any more). I don’t think I could,” he said.
Mark your not cool ok!
hahahaha nice. No Tolerance! At All! hahaha
Good Work buddy! Nice!
Woo Hooooo. Mark is the hero of the day.
Oh snap, lifetime driving prohibition.
<Pope Facepalm>
lol
<3