Posted on 03/12/2008 2:32:19 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
EL PASO, Texas (AP) - A day after a fatal highway drag racing crash, a pair of local television live trucks were caught on video in their own race at a local drag strip.
The El Paso stations, KDBC-TV and KVIA-TV, were at the legal drag racing strip Friday night when a crowd of onlookers apparently convinced a pair of photographers and a part-time anchorman to race.
Kevin Lovell, KVIA's general manager, said photographer Richie Zamora and part-time anchor Rick Cabrera were preparing a story about the legal drag racing site when they made an "impromptu decision" to race the competing station's vehicle.
"They had the crowd gathered, giggling," Lovell said. "It was a stupid thing to do. They weren't thinking."
Lovell said Cabrera, who was set to take over as a full-time anchor in May when longtime broadcaster Gary Warner retires, and Zamora are likely to face disciplinary action but won't be fired.
"There will be no terminations at KVIA," Lovell said.
Cabrera said Wednesday he regretted the incident and should have used his position to halt the race.
"I made a big mistake and I take full responsibility for my actions," Cabrera said. "In hindsight, I can certainly see the error of our ways."
Bram Watkins, general manager at KDBC, did not immediately return a telephone message from The Associated Press Wednesday.
A video of the race, posted on the video sharing Web site YouTube, shows the trucks inching to the starting line as a crowd of onlookers cheers them on. As the trucks start racing, one man not seen on the video can be heard commenting that "every cell phone is out" filming the race.
Woo-hoo!
a street race is on a public road, a drag race is a sanctioned event.....or maybe not in this case.
Drag racing with a few hundred thousand dollars worth of electronics in the back, plus enough insurance on the vehicle to cover just about anything - yeah, I could see how the station might be /just/ a /wee/ bit miffed about such a thing.
I don’t see what the problem here is, they were at a legal track, if they wanted to race even as a stunt it was all right.
They should use it in a commercial/public service announcement for both stations.
Race on the track,NOT on the street! etc.
I don't see the problem either except for one little thing, no permission from the vehicle owners. Other then that, I would love to see it.
Who won?
Even the idiots are big in Tx.
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