As a group, young people may not have much in terms of spending power, but they’ll happily watch video after video on social media. Unfortunately for those of us old enough to know exactly where the ibuprofen is at all times, that means there can be big money in making content that appeals to reckless idiots. Even so, there’s a gulf between that and posting videos in which you intentionally terrify salespeople during test drives of performance cars. While they’ve only been a problem in Texas so far, they’ve already made at least one salesperson vomit after a 130 mph “test drive,” Automotive News reports.
Instagram influencer Ahmer Saeed has posted dozens of videos showing different performance cars being driven in an incredibly reckless, beyond dangerous manner, all with a terrified salesperson as the butt of the “joke.” Can you believe these people can’t handle a little risk of possibly dying in a crash because some stranger is driving like an idiot? So funny. Truly the height of humor.
Ahmer Saeed’s reckless joyrides
Unfortunately for the salespeople who have gotten roped into participating in these videos under false pretenses, there’s a lot of pressure not to lose the sale, even if some jerk puts their safety at risk. So, while you might assume the dealerships would automatically report these joyrides to the authorities, when CBS News Texas contacted some dozen dealerships shown in the posted videos, they only found two that had called the cops.
“There are other people’s lives at risk. You can see him doing this out on the streets … so it’s just an unsafe situation when someone is driving recklessly like that,” Matt Ducote, the general manager at Moritz Kia, told CBS News. Ducote told the TV station one of his salespeople had also been duped into going along on a joyride, saying, “He gets on the test drive with the salesman and immediately starts spinning the tires, and it looks like he was going 100, 120 miles an hour and the salesman was pretty scared.”
Still, Ducote understands why not everyone would report being trapped in a speeding car against their will. “If you think you’re about to sell a car, you may not say what you would normally say to someone that’s driving that way,” he said.
Afraid for their lives
If you’re currently imagining relatively brief joyrides that involve some speeding but ultimately aren’t that big of a deal, that’s absolutely not the case here. One salesperson, Edgar Lopez, told CBS Texas that not only did he get taken on a two-and-a-half-hour “test drive,” but all of his requests to pull over were ignored.
“I started to get very concerned because any time I would tell him to get off the road or anything like that, he would just ignore me,” Lopez said of a drive that apparently topped out north of 160 mph. He also told CBS Texas that, while he was smiling in the video, he was understandably terrified at the time. “It was just a whole bunch of emotions of fear and wanting to get back to my house and wife and kids safely,” Lopez said.
That kind of reckless disregard for others’ safety isn’t just technically illegal, either. While he could be pulled over for speeding and possibly charged with reckless driving, under Texas law, refusing a salesperson’s request to pull over or slow down could also be considered unlawful restraint. If charged, it would likely be a third-degree felony since speeding and reckless driving could easily be considered “recklessly expos[ing] the victim to a substantial risk of serious bodily injury.”
Other people’s safety matters
There may, of course, be those in the comments claiming this is all in good fun, and pointing out that neither the cars nor any of the salespeople have been hurt. Look: If you want to drive over 100 mph, go to a track like a normal adult. If that’s not exciting enough for you, I’m sorry, but I just don’t care. If you’re going to drive on a public road and put others’ lives at risk, you are a bad person, period. Tricking an unsuspecting salesperson into coming along for the ride and posting the video you recorded while seemingly driving one-handed only makes you even worse.
The U.S. is the only developed country in the world where the roads continue to get more dangerous. Every other developed country has been getting safer. While that’s partly due to our collective love of big, heavy vehicles with front ends conveniently shaped to kill people, entitled fools driving like public roads are their own private racetracks only make things worse.
