LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Lansing Mayor Andy Schor is speaking out about Thursday night’s street racing crash that left 13 people injured, including a child.
According to police, the drivers of two vehicles were speeding while racing each other southbound on MLK Jr. Blvd. when another driver made a lawful turn from Pierce Rd. onto MLK Jr. Blvd. This led to the speeding drivers hitting the turning vehicle, followed by those three vehicles colliding with two other vehicles.
During the crash, two people from one of the speeding vehicles were ejected. These are the two unnamed people who are in critical condition, police say.
Street racing crash injured 13 people, including child, Lansing police say
Less than a day later, the mayor says those involved will be held accountable.
I am angry that these selfish, reckless drivers created an unsafe situation that led to such a horrible accident on S MLK, inflicting so much harm to innocent bystanders. Chief Backus and I have talked several times today about last evening. The parties involved have been identified and there will be serious consequences for the harm they caused. The Lansing Police Department will recommend all charges possible, as found by the evidence, to the Prosecutor to hold those responsible accountable. The Chief and I have also talked about having extra patrols on the road, especially in hot spot areas. LPD has several recruits in the academy now, so we will have more officers on the streets soon. And in my budget recommendation to Council, I have called for adding more officers using funding from the state Public Safety Trust Fund once it is signed into law. We have 100,000 calls per year and our police cannot be on all of our 400 miles of streets to catch speeders, so I am supportive of using red light cameras to catch excessive speeders. But cities are prevented from doing this by state law. I know legislation has been proposed, and I hope the Legislature will review those bills for consideration. Many cities across the country use them very successfully to hold careless drivers accountable for their actions and allow officers to respond to calls at the same time. LPD officers are the best in the state, but they are a very busy department and we need every tool and resource from the state to help.
Andy Schor, Lansing Mayor
Police closed all roads in the area of the crash overnight for the investigation and reopened them around 4 a.m. Friday…