MIAMI (WSVN) - Police have issued a stern warning after several drivers were caught on video performing dangerous stunts and doing “donuts” in downtown Miami and Southwest Miami-Dade, raising safety concerns among residents.
Cellphone video recorded early Sunday morning captured reckless maneuvers that resembled a scene from the “Fast and Furious” films.
Concerned residents said the cacophony of burning rubber and car engines is loud and puts innocent people’s lives in danger.
“I don’t have kids, but I would be pissed off. I mean, there’s no way a baby sleeps through this stuff,” said downtown Miami resident Marcos Garcia.
The footage shows a driver kicking up a cloud of smoke as he spun around in the middle of a busy intersection across from the AmericanAirlines Arena, holding up traffic for an illegal street show.
“It’s either the cars doing ‘donuts,’ or it’s the motorcycle/dirt bike gang running through there, doing wheelies,” said Garcia.
Miami Police were called out to the disturbance on Biscayne Boulevard, but they said the brazen motorists were long gone.
Garcia, who lives high above Biscayne Boulevard, recorded videos of the bold drivers.
He also mentioned the noise pollution, saying it woke him up.
“It’s super loud, and they’re all honking. Everybody’s honking and honking and honking,” he said. “It creates a lot of ruckus. I’m sure it wakes up a lot of people.”
Garcia said these are hardly isolated incidents. He said the alarming activity happens at least twice a month.
“I think around 1:30 in the morning, you could hear tires screeching, people honking their horns,” he said. “It’s a significant amount of people. I would say like somewhere about 50 people were outside of their cars.”
Cellphone videos also captured dangerous “donuts” in Southwest Miami-Dade, near Southwest 92nd Avenue and Bird Road, and at the Home Depot along the 11300 block of Southwest 40th Street.
Drivers were seen spinning in circles and creating chaos.
Marcos said he hopes nights like this will soon come to a screeching stop.
“The buildings there, it creates kind of like a hallway effect, so the sound really echoes and travels up the buildings,” he said. “I can hear my neighbors, everybody wake up. I can hear their sliding glass doors open and [people] going outside. It’s terrible.”
It’s also bad for the vehicles. The “donut” maneuvers can cause blowouts and mechanical failures that can lead to crashes.
As of Monday afternoon, no arrests have been reported.
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