Jackson mayor: City will not tolerate street racing on interstate, area streets

Published 8:55 am Thursday, January 21, 2021

Jackson’s mayor says the city will not tolerate drag racing and other types of reckless driving that draws crowds to watch.

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba made the comments after such activity recently closed part of Interstate 55 in Jackson, WLBT-TV reported.

Authorities have good information about a number of people believed to have been involved, the mayor said.

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Lumumba added that the city will not stand for drag racing and drifting — attention-grabbing stunts that he called extremely dangerous.

On New Year’s weekend, a group of cars blocked the northbound lanes of the interstate in Jackson as people danced on top of cars and videoed other vehicles doing doughnuts in the middle of the four-lane freeway. Videos of the incident surfaced on social media.

Northbound traffic on I-55 in Jackson between Lakeland Drive and Meadowbrook Road was blocked for an extended period of time.

The videos show several cars making multiple skid marks in the highway. People are seen dancing and filming the stunts, some getting very close to the speeding cars.