Residents of San Bernardino's Oak Hills growing frustrated with illegal street racing on dirt roads
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) -- On a quiet dirt road in San Bernardino's Oak Hills neighborhood, residents are growing frustrating with a growing number of incidents involving illegal street racing.
"Oh, I've seen them driving 90 miles an hour on this road," said Robert Gleason, who's lived on Musgrave Road, just east of the intersection with Tamarisk Avenue. "High speeds, big trucks, quads, motorcycles.
"With the high speeds it's really concerning."
Gleason said he believes it's the same group of people responsible for racing down the road at high speeds. Many of his neighbors share similar concerns.
"It's really gotten out of hand," said neighbor Jimmy Perry, who said there was an incident in late September where two trucks were racing down the bumpy dirt road, side-by-side.
"It was two or three weeks ago that there were two pickup trucks. They raced side by side starting at the corner. It takes about 300 yards to get up to speed, and they were doing easily 80 miles an hour here side by side."
Not only do the incidents happen at night, but early in the morning. And often in broad daylight.
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"They've been here at six in the morning. They've been here midday around lunchtime, and they've been here right at dusk. It's non-stop."
Gleason said he's called the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department multiple times. So far, to their knowledge, no one's been caught.
A sheriff's spokesperson confirms three separate calls for service to the location in the past three weeks. They're also investigating a case from April 7, 2023, in which a vehicle struck a pedestrian, killing him. They did not have information regarding a suspect vehicle, and there's no evidence to suggest the same people speeding up and down Musgrave Road are responsible.
"We're just stuck, we don't have any help from anyone," said Gleason.
Neighbors say they fear it's now getting personal, with the speeders often yelling profanities at them. There have also been instances where they say the speeders intentionally use their vehicles to fill the neighborhood with clouds of dirt.
"I had (my wife) call the police because they drove by really fast going west and then they made a U-turn," said Gleason, who said he grabbed her keys and backed her car into the road in an attempt to block the speeders as they came back.
"(I was) thinking I could stall them a little and wait for the police to get here. And they actually pulled forward and did a 360 and just peppered my wife's car with gravel.
"Who knows when they're going to crash and run into one of these houses?"
