Chaos in Mississauga during illegal parking lot race
According to the councillor and local police, street racers and auto tricksters frequently congregate in the Westwood Square Mall parking lot in Mississuga’s Malton neighbourhood. The meetings are notorious for their late-night turmoil, which Mayor of Mississauga Carolyn Parrish hears about most weekends.
She shared a video on Twitter in late February that features numerous cars in the parking lot flashing their red lights. The smoke that emerges from the burning rubber of the spinning car tires covers the asphalt and the white lines.
On the video, car engines are constantly droning in the background.
According to authorities, the problem is not unusual, either in the city or at Westwood Square Mall.
But, Parrish contends that because there is no Walmart there, the issue is specific to Westwood Square. She claimed that the problem has been made worse by the empty expanse of asphalt that its abandoned parking lot creates.
According to Parrish, the grocery store closed down but maintained its lease, leaving a sizable portion of the mall and roughly a third of its parking lot empty. More than an average of one report every weekend, Peel Regional Police received 12 calls between January 1 and February 22, 2022, for the Westwood Square Mall and the surrounding neighbourhood.
In addition to the three documented street racing instances, seven other complaints contained the words “racing” or “stunt.” In addition, officers received a warning of “cars driving around aimlessly” and a second report of a “reckless driver.”
Street Racing taking lives in Mississauga and Brampton
In the Feb. 5, 2018, collision that resulted in the death of Rabab Arshad and the injuries of Khan and passenger Irsa Tahir, Khan, who was 20 at the time of the collision, pled guilty in April to driving recklessly, criminal carelessness causing death, and criminal negligence causing bodily damage. A judge has decided that Khan, who admitted responsibility in the Mississauga street race that claimed the life of his 19-year-old girlfriend would not serve jail time, instead will be permitted to serve his sentence in the community.
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