Features

OAKLAND — A car wreck at one of the Bay Area’s notorious illegal car rallies has left a woman dead, a man in jail and top city officials calling for new laws to curb the troublesome activity. 

U’Kendra Johnson, 22, of Oakland, was killed when the car she was riding in was broadsided by a Buick that moments before had been spinning “doughnuts” as part of the so-called sideshow, police said. 

Police arrested the driver, 27-year-old Eric Crawford of Oakland, after he fled the scene on foot. Crawford was arrested on suspicion of murder, felony hit-and-run and drunken driving. 

“There is just more and more lives being taken and everyone is like, ’who gives a damn,”’ said Winnie Johnson, the victim’s mother. 

The city has struggled since the late 1980s to curb the late-night gatherings, which draw crowds of people from around the Bay Area to watch drivers whirl around with teens on the roofs of their cars. 

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown said he wants the state to enact emergency laws giving police the power to impound any car involved in sideshows for 30 days.