Ohio Lawmaker pushing for bill to crackdown on street take overs

Ohio lawmakers are pushing for a bill that cracks down on reckless driving across the state, also known as hooning.

We've seen reckless driving incidents all over Cleveland. But with a list of incidents, no one is in custody, and when they are caught, the question lies: will the penalties be enough to stop them from doing it again?

Michael and Angela Kontos don't need social media videos to know what left tire marks in front of their business. Instead, they saw it firsthand when they headed in to open Angela’s family restaurant.

“We open up at five in the morning and if they're out here doing donuts or whatever. They can kill somebody,” said Angela.

For 44 years, the couple has built a reputation for serving up breakfast at the corner of St. Clair and E 72nd Street. But, continuous incidents like this weekend’s where videos show a car drifting in circles as fireworks go off and the crowd watches, are keeping customers away.

This comes after we showed you similar videos over the past couple of weeks. Though no arrests have been made, Cleveland police told News 5 that in these situations, drivers can be charged with a traffic violation.

But with House Bill 56, Ohio representative Phil Plummer plans to crack down on reckless driving, also known as hooning, with increased penalties.

“It's going to be a first-degree misdemeanor if they're doing the burnouts in your neighborhoods, blocking intersections. Then if they run from the police, we've gone from a first-degree misdemeanor to a fourth-degree felony,” said Representative Plummer.

It’s an escalating offense for an escalating problem.

“We need to hold them accountable and tell them we're not going to tolerate this in our communities. You know, this is very dangerous to our citizens,” said Plummer.

A problem Michael and Angela want to be solved.

“More chargers, something to punish them not to do it again,” said Michael.

The bill is set for its fourth hearing tomorrow in the Ohio Senate, where they are discussing whether police should be able to seize the cars involved.

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