CLEVELAND — Dozens of drivers took over several intersections and turned them into their personal stunt tracks Sunday night and into Monday morning all over Cleveland. The roving display of reckless driving spanned both the west and east sides, frustrating drivers every step of the way.
The night started with a large car meet on the west side near a shopping center near West 110th Street and Lorain Avenue. Cleveland police received calls from perturbed neighbors who reported 30 to 40 vehicles were in the parking lot and many of them were doing donuts and burnouts. As police neared the area, the group scattered.
Around 9:30 p.m. Sunday, a group of drivers and their passengers took over the intersection of Detroit Avenue and West 25th Street, blocking traffic and the nearby Detroit-Super Bridge. Mike Rogalski captured cell phone video of at least two drivers performing dozens of donuts as onlookers gloated them on.
“I’ve seen the dirt bikes and ATVs doing whatever they want but I’ve never seen cars blocking the intersection,” Rogalski said. “That’s when I realized that they had both sides of the roadway blocked off in both directions, six lines of cars, and even the sidewalk closed off.”
Around and around the drivers went, whipping donuts in the middle of the intersection for 10 to 15 minutes, Rogalski said. At one point, Rogalski said he tried to go around the group in order to get home but he was quickly questioned by some of the participants.
“They said, ‘what do you think you’re doing?’ I said, ‘nothing, just minding my own business,'” Rogalski said. “They were going to stay there until officers came. They didn’t care whatsoever. There was nothing I could do… I didn’t want to become a victim. I just sat there and smiled like a good Cleveland resident.”
It then appears that the group moved from the west side to the east side, passing through several red lights and occasionally performing donuts in several east side intersections, according to News 5’s overnight photojournalist, Mike Vielhaber.
Authorities eventually located one of the vehicles involved abandoned near East 12th Street and Superior Avenue, Rogalski said
“It definitely is scary. There were people hanging out of their cars when they were spinning out and they could have lost control of their car and hit my car or hit someone else. Yes, there was anxiety the whole time,” Rogalski said.
