Monday, November 29, 2021 | 2 a.m
The Ferrari 812 Superfast is a sleek, high-performance car with a fitting name and a top speed of 211 mph. That’s only 1 mph slower than the fastest recorded speed in NASCAR history.
But should the Superfast and similar cars be rented as-is to drive on the streets of Las Vegas? Clark County officials are investigating this issue in the light of statistics showing rented exotic cars are contributing to a sharp increase in road deaths in Nevada.
Talking about exotic rentals is worthwhile as part of a larger investigation into improving safety on our roads.
That problem flared up in the past two weeks after Las Vegas Weekly, the Sun’s sister publication, spread shocking news that in a record year for road deaths in Nevada, at least 8% of all deaths were from exotic car rentals, almost all of which were in Las Vegas rented. And this category of supercars does not reflect renting conventional near-supercars like modern Porsches and Corvettes.
Many of these exotic cars are capable of reaching speeds that are twice the maximum speed on our highways and many times faster than the maximum speed on our roads. They rev up quickly too – not to hack the Superfast, but it got 60 mph from a standstill in just 2.8 seconds when tested by Car and Driver magazine.
Any vehicle can be fatal in the wrong hands, but these cars are dangerous because of their power. Worse still, few drivers know how to steer a vehicle at this level of power, and our roads, unlike a racetrack, are not designed for this speed. Authorities say exotic rentals were implicated in the deaths of 26 to 39 people that year, most of which occurred in Clark County and involved excessive speeding or impairment, or both.
It’s likely that most people rent these exotic cars not just to look cool and try the exotic lifestyle, but to go fast – very, very fast – and that’s built into the whole romance of the exotic rental car concept. It’s a deadly mix as few drivers are willing to deal with such vehicles and the speeds they can reach should be limited to racetracks.
Possible solutions include installing ignition locks to prevent vehicles from being driven by impaired motorists and speed controls to prevent them from exceeding the stated limits. Other suggestions on the table are that renters must take a defensive driving test before getting behind the wheel.
These are valid ideas for addressing growing safety concerns, but they probably don’t go far enough.
With more than 330 road and highway deaths nationwide this year, the highest in more than a decade, executives should look at road safety from every angle.
Exotic cars are fine when driven by responsible drivers who obey the law – the vehicles brake and generally drive well so they can avoid accidents – but they are exceptionally dangerous in the wrong hands. Combine a car that can go over 200 mph with someone who’s seen a few too many “Fast and Furious” movies or decides to drive drunk, and it can be like gasoline and matches.
The design of the streets of Las Vegas doesn’t help. Many of them are wide and straight, with few traffic calming devices between traffic lights – a dragline-like layout that makes our streets conducive to excessive speeds. Road surfaces in our desert city can also be rough – hitting a pothole at 250 km / h is a formula for losing control.
We saw the terrible result of a high performance car, excessive speed, and allegedly impaired driving style last June when a rented Lamborghini Huracan (top speed 200 mph-plus) ran into a moped at high speed in Las Vegas. Authorities said the force of the impact was so severe that the moped rider was cut in half. According to police, the driver of the Lamborghini was traveling at 141 mph in a speed zone of 45 mph at the time of the accident. The driver, Andrew James Rodriguez, was charged with DUI, which resulted in death, reckless driving and driving without a license.
There is no plausible way to prevent every road fatality, as the individual responsibility of drivers for people’s safety is of vital importance. Or, as Marilyn Kirkpatrick, chairman of the Clark County Commission put it, “I don’t know how to regulate stupidity.”
But there are ways to improve safety through road design and technology. These steps include narrowing the width of the streets, lowering speed limits, installing better-protected pedestrian and cycle paths, and introducing more traffic-calming devices, such as radar-equipped signs that blink when drivers are moving too fast. Increased law enforcement must also be part of the conversation. We should also consider mandatory jail sentences for anyone traveling over 100 mph – speeds like these are never justified and always endanger the public.
But the focus on exotic car rental in Las Vegas is appropriate as part of a larger puzzle.
These vehicles certainly have their appeal, as evidenced by the fact that several renters have emerged to compete in the southern Nevada market.
Las Vegas residents want visitors to have fun while they are here, including by getting around in one of the sexiest vehicles in the world if they want. But it is the responsibility of our leadership to explore ways to contain the very real dangers posed by these cars.
