Drag racing on Jacksonville’s Southside Blvd. keeps neighbors up at night

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If you were on Southside Blvd. near Baymeadows Rd. earlier Sunday, you probably saw skid marks in the street left behind after dozens of cars were seen drag racing the night before.

One woman told Action News Jax the noise kept her up most of the night.

UPDATED STORY: Jacksonville police working to ‘proactively’ address street racing concerns, representative says

“It just kept going all night long. Can’t sleep, agitating the dogs. It was pretty bad,” Samantha Jacobs said.

Videos on social media show dozens of cars swarming Southside Blvd. and Baymeadows Rd., screeching and peeling off on Saturday night. One video even shows people setting off fireworks in the street.

“We start hearing like burning out, peeling out, super, super loud. It lasted for at least an hour, maybe more. It just kept going,” Jacobs recalled.

Most concerning to her is she didn’t see or hear any police. Jacobs also watched some of the videos on social media and saw lots of young people.

“It’s a lot of kids. Dangerous things, you know, kids might get hit, someone else might get hit,” Jacobs worried.

Action News Jax has been telling you for months about illegal street racing and sideshows that have become a big problem in the city. We first showed you in February that bold drivers swarmed downtown, taking over the streets with potentially dangerous stunts, just feet from the front door of JSO headquarters. But JSO’s response has been anything but fast, leaving people like Jacobs furious that such activity is happening in her neighborhood.

“I would hope that police presence would be a little bit more just to make sure that they’re safe,” she said.

In Florida, anyone caught drag racing could face misdemeanor charges and lose their driver’s license for a year.

A large car meet-up on Baymeadows Road and San Jose Blvd. Car video A large car meet-up on Baymeadows Road and San Jose Blvd.

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