Family Of Street Racing Victim Attends Town Hall To Look For Answers To Make It Stop
WILLOWBROOK (CBSLA) --The family of a 23-year-old woman killed by apparent street racers attended a town hall in Willowbrook Wednesday evening.
They wanted to share their grief and they wanted someone to come up with answers to put an end to the dangerous practice.
CBS2/KCAL9 reporter Laurie Perez spoke to the devastated family.
One-by-one, members of Bethany Holguins's family spoke in front of the packed meeting.
"How many people have to die for you to step up and do something about it?," said one family member.
Their pain was only matched by their resolve -- they vowed that no one else dies at the hands of street racing.
Holquin was killed on Mother's Day weekend. Home security cameras captured what the CHP said was a street race.
The camera also captured one of two cars slamming into a Camry -- the Camry contained Holguin and her 20-year-old brother .
"My brother's lived there for 20 to 30 years and it hasn't stopped. It keeps continuing and we're here as a community to say, you know what? Enough is enough," said the victim's uncle, Ed Arzola.
"It could have been prevented," said the victim's aunt Lori Argumedo. "Like I said, I've watched the video over and over again, and it's senseless, it was something that could have been prevented."
In just over a week, the family has turned their mourning into a movement. Tonight, they helped bring together CHP, county engineers and public health experts -- not to leave out residents who are literally looking for all solutions to end the practice of racing -- including and not limited to more stop signs, speed bumps or patrols.
As experts promised to study the problem further, homeowners urged them to look no further than the streets for the evidence of what's putting their lives at risk.
"You hear it all night long. You hear the wheels squealing, whether it's cars or motorcycles, you know that there's some serious racing going on in this community," said resident Ken Carson.
Authorities said they have street racing patrols in the area every weekend.
The CHP said this year alone, they have towed 200 cars they said were involved in street racing events in South Los Angeles.