Why I don't street race... Options

[JonMarkos]

So I see a lot of posts up about people racing on the streets, and although they usually get locked pretty quick I still know that it's going on so I thought I would post up my little story about why I don't street race anymore. And I'm not looking for replies or to be bashed because of this, it was a hard lesson to learn but luckily I learned it, and I haven't forgotten it yet...

So I'm driving home one day at around 1 in the morning after eating at perkins with some friends of mine. I'm in my vehicle alone stopped at a stop light when another vehicle pulls up along side of me. I look over at the guy and he looks at me and we both rev our engines and know that it's on. When the light changes I floor it and get a pretty good distance ahead of him. We are in the middle of town and I'm doing about 85 or so in a 30mph zone and even though it's late and the town in relatively small (45,000 give or take) we begin to catch up to traffic that is ahead of us. I have a car right in front of me in my lane so I begin to slow down, he doesn't slow down until he is right on the car in front of him and it is too late. He tries to come into my lane but by then I was right next to him since I had already begun braking. He must have realized he was about to hit me because he swerves to the left to try to make a turn onto a side street. I knew it wasn't going to be good so I look in my rearview and don't see him, after I get a little bit farther up I look again and his vehicle is rolling into oncoming traffic. I freaked out and drove out of town as fast and inconspicuously as I could and tried to relax. About 20 minutes later I go back into town and drive down a side street near the accident so I could try to see what was going on. There were multiple police cars and emergency vehicles around the wreck. Over the next couple of days I start to put out feelers with people that I know to see if anyone could tell me what happened. When talking with a friend of mine about it he stops talking and just stares at me. It turned out that his girlfriend worked at a Taco Johns that was located right where the other driver wrecked. Everyone in the Taco Johns heard the accident and ran outside. The guy that was driving was ok, and so was his passenger in the front, but the man had a little kid in the back seat of his car that wasn't buckled in. The kid got thrown around the vehicle and was cut up pretty bad from the vehicle's glass shattering. I "thought" I did everything right in this race. The road directly in front of us was clear, I was buckled in and alone, it was night time so the chance of someone walking on the street was less, and I disengaged when other traffic presented itself, but I learned the lesson that no matter what I am doing either right or wrong I have no control over what the other vehicle is doing. For a long time I beat myself up over this because I thought it was my fault, I realized though that it wasn't, that I never forced that guy to race, but if this situation happened again and someone was killed I don't know if I'd be able to live with that. So there ya have it, that is why I don't street race anymore. Take from this what you will.