Late nearly every night, Vicki Kipper says, she hears the roar of drivers racing outside her Highland Avenue home, occasionally punctuated by the crunch of a speeding car tearing the side mirror off a parked car.
"You hear them before you see them," said Kipper, who has lived on Highland for 26 years. "We also hear cars getting hit all the time out here."
During the day, Highland is one of the busiest arteries in Los Angeles, with stop-and-go traffic funneling into the business district north of Melrose Avenue and the residential area of Hancock Park to the south.
But once the crush lifts after 8 p.m., speeding vehicles use a nearly three-mile stretch between Sunset and Wilshire boulevards as an impromptu racetrack, according to Highland residents and local officials.
Taking advantage of traffic lights that seem to be perpetually green and encouraged by the rare sight of Los Angeles streets empty of police and gridlocked cars, drivers sometimes burn rubber at up to 70 mph on the street, which is posted for 40 mph, residents said.
At times, drivers rushing north toward the Hollywood Freeway or heading south after a few drinks at the bars on Sunset spontaneously begin racing other cars. And although police said Highland racing is nothing like the organized events in the San Fernando Valley that can draw hundreds of spectators, both can have disastrous consequences.
Police believe Carlos Steven John, 21, was racing while drunk when he smashed his BMW into two cars early Saturday at Highland and Sunset, killing the driver and passenger of one car and injuring the driver of the second. John, of Los Angeles, now faces at least one murder charge.
But the problem is not isolated to young drivers of flashy sports cars. Resident Anthony Filosa, 67, said he has seen tour buses and trucks well over Highland's 6,000-pound weight limit barrel down the street.
After a decade of work revitalizing Hollywood, the crowds flocking to the area now party harder, stay out later and drive faster, said Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes the area.
"It's no longer a town that goes to bed at 10 at night," LaBonge said. "In the middle of the night, people do dumb things."
The city has built three traffic islands in recent years to make Highland look narrower, hoping to dissuade nighttime drivers who speed at the sight of a wide, open expanse, LaBonge said.
