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Every weekend, these mechanics enthusiasts take their car, tuned or not, to a performance at the “rasso”, understand “vehicle gathering”. On the sidelines of these meetings tolerated by the authorities, a dangerous and totally illegal practice is becoming more and more frequent: drivers launch themselves at full speed on straight lines and skid in turns, at the risk of hitting the public.
Friday evening in the commercial areas is “rasso” day. These vehicle gatherings bring together hundreds of mechanical enthusiasts. Without being authorized, these meetings are tolerated as long as the cars remain parked and, theoretically, that some of their technical characteristics are not modified. Lowering your car or tampering with the engine to amplify its noise as some of these enthusiasts do is prohibited, but the police know how to be conciliatory. That evening, there is a check just before the “rasso”, but no one will be fined.
This tolerance is not unanimous, because what often attracts crowds on the sidelines of these meetings is not legal. In the middle of the night, in the middle of the spectators, cars launch at high speed on the straights and skid in the turns. In one year, the number of these “runs” or urban rodeos has tripled in France. The slightest figure is immediately published on social networks, and this race for buzz makes drivers take all the risks. Accidents are increasing, as well as victims: in 2022, a young man of 19 died in Pas-de-Calais, another 18 in the North, yet another in Isère…
Despite the accidents, the “runs” continue
On the outskirts of Bordeaux, on April 14, 2023, an accident injured thirteen people in the public (a driver lost control of his vehicle and hit the crowd). A week later, the irreducible were present at the next “rasso”… and the police too. Asked by “Special Envoy”, many of these enthusiasts regret that their appointments sometimes slip into wild “runs”. For them, this practice “does not represent automotive passion”, and they are afraid of “suffer the consequences”, such as checks or seizures of vehicles… in short, of “pay for those who do anything”. Only ten minutes from this gathering of stationary vehicles, the entrance to which the police closed, the “runs” resumed as if nothing had happened… without the police around.
Excerpt from “Urban rodeos: beware of speeders!”, a report broadcast in “Special Envoy” on April 27, 2023.
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