NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark — A family is thankful that their two boys are home safe after a car drove them off a North Little Rock highway. Their mother says drag racing was the cause of the crash.
17-year-old Ethan Hughes was driving home from work as a lifeguard with his 16-year-old brother Britt on July 6.
North Little Rock police responded to a call around 10:15 p.m. on the 1400 block of Landers Road and found Ethan inside a ditch with damage to his car. Hughes was driving northbound on Landers and told police a lime green Camaro forced him off the road.
His mother Heather Webb said Ethan had just got the car five days before the incident.
"I don't have a problem with racing. I use to go to the drag race in Prescott, but there's a time and place for it and you can not do that on the highway, the interstate, or regular roads," said Webb.
She said Ethan was in the turning lane on McCain to turn onto Landers. The lime green Camaro then turned into the same turning lane and tried to race ahead of Hughes.
"When he cut them off he was either going to hit them or Ethan was going to have to move. So, Ethan moved. He did like a 360 and then a 180 and he's off into the ditch almost up against the cement guard," said Webb.
The reason she believes drag racing in the reason for her son's totaled car, is because not even 48 hours later she thinks she saw the same lime green Camaro racing in North Little Rock.
She and her husband were on their way home to Jacksonville.
"That car and then another car came just hauling butt past us. The other car nearly hit. I mean it was so close we could have reached out and ran out fingers across it," said Webb.
She said it's a reminder that the illegal drag racing incidents in and around the city can be dangerous.
"He didn't care. I don't understand what is going on with the racing right now, but they have absolutely no care in the world about who is around them or what's going on," said Webb.