Wild ride on freeway spurs CHP search
Updated 9:06 pm, Monday, January 28, 2013
California Highway Patrol investigators are trying to track down the half-dozen drivers who briefly shut down all four northbound lanes of the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland while they did doughnuts.
Participants and other motorists recorded the drivers Saturday afternoon as they stopped all northbound traffic near the Coliseum and burned rubber in souped-up, stylized cars often associated with street parties known as sideshows.
The drivers screeched around stopped motorists, the videos show.
CHP officers said Monday they were horrified after the videos surfaced online.
"In my 35 years in the department, I've never seen anything like this," said CHP Sgt. Diana McDermott. "It looks like something you would see on a video game or something, but these are real-life incidents, and it takes seconds - seconds - for a fatal collision to happen."
The group broke up when someone yelled, "5-O," a moniker for approaching police. No arrests have been made.
Videos of the incident Saturday on Interstate 880 in Oakland can be seen at http://bit.ly/14pesCR.