CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – Newly released details into a June 2023 fatal crash are shedding a spotlight on the dangers of illegal street racing.
On Monday, News4JAX learned the suspected street racing incident that killed 18-year-old Alteondra Williams was livestreamed on Instagram.
Not only did investigators see a copy of the video, but they also spoke with a witness who was a passenger in the other car.
Last week, the Florida Highway Patrol announced the arrest of 22-year-old Clifton Flagler Jr. and 20-year-old Derrick Evans.
Both men are facing charges in connection to a crash that killed Williams.
According to the arrest warrant, Flagler and Evans were racing through multiple red lights and drove recklessly through traffic at high speeds along Highway 17 in Green Cove Springs.
According to the event data recorder from Flagler’s Chevy Malibu, he was traveling at 132 mph before losing control of his car. The Malibu went off the road, spun, hit a culvert, and went airborne into a tree.
The collision with the tree caused Flagler’s car to split in half.
Flagler and Williams, his passenger, were taken to the hospital where Williams died.
“There have been cases that I’ve had association with over the years that are directly related to a street racing event,” News4JAX Crime and Safety Analyst Tom Hackney said.
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Before becoming a News4JAX Crime and Safety Analyst, Hackney spent close to 30 years as a JSO law enforcement officer who worked in the homicide unit before becoming the director of investigations and homeland security.
Hackney said illegal street racing involving young people has been around for a long time in Northeast Florida.
“Now you have a lot more technology that cars have, and you can chip them. You can raise horsepower and you can do it without a whole lot of money involved,” Hackney said.
According to data from Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the primary age range of illegal street racing is 16 to 29, and according to Streetracing.com, a website dedicated to legal car racing enthusiasts, today’s street racing culture can be partially attributed to what’s portrayed in movies.
But street racing scenes in movies are recorded on closed movie sets and streets that have been blocked off. Plus, professional stunt drivers are behind the wheel.
Hackney said that people who illegally street race are not professional stunt drivers and are racing on roads shared by other motorists.
“Sometimes they end up in fatalities and there can be multiple fatalities just because again, it’s a couple of thousand-pound car versus a body and you know who’s going to lose,” Hackney said.
And this is why Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles have posted this flier online to prevent death and destruction from illegal street racing.
According to data from Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, from 2020 to last year, there have been increases in the number of street racing citations.
There was a significant increase in street racing citations in 2023:
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1,295 citations in 2020
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1,675 citations in 2021
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1,946 citations in 2022
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2,485 citations in 2023
Although street racing is only a first-degree misdemeanor in Florida, it’s a crime punishable by losing your license for up to four years and having to pay up to $5,000 in fines.
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