SACRAMENTO (KXTV) - Risky, so-called, "sideshows" were keeping the California Highway Patrol busy even as they spilt over from freeways to city streets.
The latest major sideshow blocked traffic in the southbound lanes of the Capitol City Freeway Saturday afternoon, as bystanders took video and traffic came to a standstill.
But even off the freeway, the dangerous practice put participants and bystanders at risk. A recent sideshow that spilled off Interstate 80 and onto Roseville Boulevard sent 12-year-old Christy Picazo running into her father's tire business in fear.
"I thought that they were like gonna come over here and come up here and go all around again," she said, describing the roar of engines that sent her running inside, worried she might get hit.
At Ray Molina's nearby custom car workshop, he heard the roar and realized what was happening.
"The way they do it is very dangerous. You have to know how to do that stuff. It's not for everybody," Molina said. "I've seen guys fly off the door on those spin outs."
At the auto repair shop he helped run with his father on Watt Avenue, Dmitry, who did not want his last name or business name used, said the remnants of a sideshow have raced in and out of the area in front of his shop in front of customers.
"They would drive off and speed around and do a donut even during work on business days...when people are here."
Dmitry said even his family's North Highlands church was not immune to one recent sideshow-like event that sent parishioners scrambling for cover.
"A car could have gone out of control and it could have just spun out and somebody could have either ended up in the hospital or, you know, could have died," he said.
Molina said he believed a promoter should encourage youngsters to do sideshows on a track, in front of bystanders safely in up in stands.
"They should have amateur night for these guys. Where they can go and do that stuff," Molina said.
But he admitted the practice is dangerous to participants, no matter what.
"I've seen guys sitting on the door edges and the car's burning rubber and they're holding the steering wheel. Something's holding the gas, I don't know what is, but they're holding the steering wheel with their foot and they're just sitting on the door edge," Molina said, adding that the practice has spread to other countries, including those the Middle East, where a quick glance at the internet can show the practice in Gulf States and elsewhere.
The California Highway Patrol said they will pursue illegal sideshow drivers and prosecute them to the maximum penalties under the law.
The problem was finding the drivers. At one sideshow in Rio Linda last Saturday, a police officer spotted the proceeding and called other agencies to respond. But before they could, drivers and bystanders had left the area. There were no arrests.
