By Steven Symes 
Footage from Florida Highway Patrol busting up a street takeover in Tampa shows a teenage girl learn in real time the consequences of attending the illegal gathering. Surely she knew it wasn’t a good idea, otherwise her and everyone else at the takeover wouldn’t have scattered once troopers showed up.
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She has the misfortune of a trooper zeroing in on her white Nissan Altima as she blasted out of the parking lot where the takeover event was going down. Unable to pull away from the FHP cruiser, she learned firsthand what it’s like be on the receiving end of a PIT maneuver.
That PIT sent the Nissan spinning off the road and into a utility pole, crumping the rear passenger door and deploying the curtain airbags on that side. Daddy sure isn’t going to like dealing with that insurance claim, which probably will be rejected since she was committing a felony.
Thanks to a newer law in Florida, not only can people who participate in street takeovers be criminally charged, so can spectators. Other states are passing similar laws, giving law enforcement and prosecutors more ways to crack down on the destructive gatherings.
In this case, the 18-year-old driver was hit with two felony charges: Unlawful racing on highway while engaged in coordinated street takeover and aggravated fleeing to elude. She has her whole life ahead of her and already is going to deal with those consequences.
We don’t know if she realized in the moment just how badly she screwed up. In the dashcam footage as she’s getting arrested, the teenager seems pretty calm. We somehow doubt she’ll be quite so collected once the full weight of everything hits.
Let this be a warning to others thinking they’ll go to a street takeover in Florida: find something else to do. Cops are looking to bust anyone going to these events, so we’d stay far away from them.
Image via Scooper/YouTube