Austin police say they're cracking down on drivers who race on area roads and highways.

On Sunday, October 12th, citizen complaints about racing on East Ben White led to the arrest of 23-year old Mario Navarro, who is charged with racing on a highway, a third degree felony.

In his arrest warrant, an Austin police officer says that Navarro and the driver of an Acura were going at least 100 m.p.h. westbound on Ben White.  The officer says when he turned his lights on to pull them over, they took off towards the I-35 on-ramp heading northbound.  Navarro crashed his car into the wall of the flyover at 80 m.p.h.

A passenger was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

Racing on Ben White is an issue which nearby residents say they see way too often.

"It's just an ongoing problem and it has to do with this loop, with this turn around right here on Woodward, they go down to Montopolis and it's just never ending, never ending, never ending" said Rick Gomez who lives near Ben White and I-35.  "Basically it's in the evening like after 10, between 10 (p.m.) and 3 (a.m.).  Sometimes I hear them at 4-o'clock in the morning."

"We take racing very seriously in Austin" said Commander Sean Mannix of the Austin Police Department.  Mannix says an officer trying to catch up to a driver who is racing will weigh environmental factors before doing so.

"The road conditions, the capability of the car that he's driving, whether or not there's people around, how congested traffic is all those different things, whether it's in a residential area or on open highway so the officer has to take a lot of things into account" he said.

Racing on a highway is a 3rd degree felony which is punishable by 2-10 years in prison.