Another life, that of RCMP Constable Jimmy Ng, has been taken by the actions of a reckless driver and, as is too often the case in the Lower mainland, the driver charged in the case is a young Asian male.
I’m not suggesting that young Asians are solely responsible for our culture of speed. Nor am I suggesting that all youth partake in this irresponsible behavior. However, young Asians are over represented in incidents involving high speed, most of which never make the news because noone was seriously injured or killed. It has reached the point where “rice rocket” has become the term used in the Lower Mainland to describe the modified high powered vehicles preferred by many young Asians.
Young men have been street racing since cars were invented. The difference was that previous generations usually worked to get the money to buy and modify their vehicles. Consequently they weren’t as likely to take risks and generally chose out-of-the-way locations to race where the risk to the public was minimized.
By contrast, many of today’s youth are given high powered vehicles by parents who have limited involvement in the lives of their children. It is human nature that when you work to achieve a goal, you appreciate and respect the effort and time involved. Conversely, if you are given everything you develop no respect for anyone or anything. This applies to to that segment of young Asians who use our streets as race tracks.
Many come from affluent backgrounds where the parents work hard to provide for their families. Often one or both parents live overseas while their children attend school here. To compensate for their absence and as an expression of their affection, some of these parents shower their children with money and material things. It is a parent’s responsibility to nurture, to instill in their children a sense of right and wrong and of proper values, to discipline when needed or provide praise and encouragement when deserved.
It is ironic that that in a culture where the family unit is held in the highest regard, the persistent search for wealth and status to provide for the family has contributed to its breakdown. Most children of these families are seemingly intelligent and well adjusted, but for some this is a facade. Beneath a shallow exterior there is a lack of compassion and accountability. It’s all about instant gratification, all about “me”, without the consideration and respect that comes with earning something. This self-indulgent attitude is evident in the callous disregard for the safety of others as irresponsible drivers race along our streets, leave the scene of collisions where there may be injured and dying, or fleeing the country if they’re granted bail instead of facing the consequences.
This problem faces not only the Asian community. In all likelihood any young person, regardless of ethnicity, will stray in the same circumstances – lack of emotional maturity and parental guidance, access to seemingly unlimited financial resources, and too much free time. It may be drugs, alcohol, gangs, gambling, street racing or all of the above. Add to this mixture the volatility, impulsiveness, and “invincibility” of youth and you can imagine the potential for tragedy.
Who is responsible? Ultimately the drivers must be held accountable for their actions. But parents must also share culpability, for it is the parents who hold the pursestrings. It is the parents whose single-minded pursuit of material wealth comes at the expense of their children. It is the parents who assuage their guilt by providing material goods in place of substance.
The car manufacturers and advertisers must shoulder some responsibility as well. Their carefully contrived ads target the most impressionable segment of society with the most disposable income. Their ads associate powerful vehicles with machismo and sex appeal to manipulate the human obsession with speed, sex and power.
Automotive shops that specialize in vehicle modifications, essentially changing street cars into race cars, must also be held accountable. Shop owners and mechanics know that some modifications (i.e. lowered suspensions) are intended for use on groomed race tracks by experienced professional drivers, not on uneven, pot-holed city streets by drivers who over estimate their abilities.
Hollywood producers and video game manufacturers must share culpability when they create movies and games with little or no plot, just sensational characters in in thrilling car chases. Reality and fantasy are blurred as violent death scenes are glamorized and sanitized in the pursuit of profit with little consideration to the effects on a young viewing public.
What are the solutions? I am not so naive as to believe that this way of thinking will change any time soon. The culture of speed is too deeply ingrained. But it is hoped that, by initiating dialogue, we keep open the avenues of communication that will eventually change attitudes about “accidents”. There is nothing accidental about operating a vehicle at an excessive speed, causing a crash and killing people. So this dialogue will, it is hoped, influence the courts to impose heavier penalties (lengthy prison sentences and lifetime driving prohibitions), thereby initiating a social shift away from the culture of speed, making it as socially unacceptable as impaired driving.
I do not believe that more speedways are a solution. They have strict regulations governing vehicle equipment and modifications, but many of the “rice rockets” speeding on our streets have been illegally altered at the cost of hundreds or thousands of dollars. For many owners of these cars, rat racing in traffic is part of the thrill. Each time there is no incident, the stakes go higher —as does the risk to the public.
As the modifications raise the horsepower of a vehicle, the temptation to test out its capabilities also increases. So I think that if it can be proven that particular modification contributed to or caused a high speed crash resulting in injury or death, the victim or their families should consider civil remedies against the automotive shop responsible for the vehicle alteration. Also, the Province should strictly regulate the types of equipment and modifications allowed on the road and shops should be required to register any vehicles that have been modified from stock.
Many high powered vehicles have been illegally modified under existing laws and a Police Officer can order a vehicle to be immediately removed from the road for inspection. But the Province must establish stricter criteria for owners of auto shops certified as vehicle inspection facilities. Certification means that if a vehicle is towed to a certified site, the mechanics are qualified to determine if the condition or modifications on a vehicle are within safe guidelines of the manufacturer’s specifications. The Province should initiate a training program dealing specifically with vehicle modifications to standardize the testing procedure. Shop owners and mechanics pay the cost and the program should be mandatory for mechanics in all certified automotive shops. Shop owners should be required to send an updated list of qualified mechanics to ICBC every year to retain their certification.
The provincial course should be offered to Police Officers to educate them on illegal and/or unsafe vehicle equipment and modifications. Also, the inspection document should be revamped to provide more detailed information on the equipment and its condition. Presently, the document is simply a series of check boxes that provide no specific information. In addition, the Province and municipalities should re-instate yearly vehicle inspections, in conjunction with emissions testing, that must be passed before the vehicle can be insured. This would not only address the issue of modified vehicles but also vehicles in poor mechanical condition(bad brakes, steering, suspension, etc.)
Lastly, to obtain a driver’s license in B.C., applicants should be required to have at least a basic grasp of English and pass a written exam without interpretative assistance. This would not be a violation of Charter rights as some suggest because the Charter does not guarantee the right to drive. Driving is a privilege. More than once I have heard colleagues express their frustrations as they recount attempts to explain to a driver why he was stopped and the driver appeared not to understand. Also, the ability to understand English is important in understanding traffic signs warning of hazards.
My purpose of writing this article is to encourage discussion in our community and, more importantly, to encourage more interaction between parents and their children. By doing so, we can identify the underlying factors to the problem, question our priorities and bring about solutions.
The time for political correctness has long passed; our youth are killing and maiming themselves and members of the public with alarming frequency. I am in a unique position as a Chinese police officer in the Collision Investigation Unit to express these views without being persecuted. This is a passionate issue and my opinions may incite anger and opposition among some members of the Asian community. I make no apologies; I prefer the wrath of a few to indifference from all.
However, I feel the vast majority of people share my view and together we can influence the courts to adopt a sterner stance on dangerous, irresponsible drivers. Until then, the paltry fines and lenient sentences are simply the cost of reckless behavior and I will no doubt be advising another family at 3 a.m. that their son or daughter was killed in another high-speed crash.
Cst Wes Fung, Collision Analyst
Vancouver City Police
Published in the Vancouver Sun Newspaper November 19, 2002