Another quote from the article:

Matt Griffin, who was at the car show, has been drag racing for five years and agreed that running a dragster on a city street was a “pretty stupid thing to do.”

Hard to call it an "accident" when somebody gets this stupid. Drag racing and Hot Rodding in general sure as heck doesn't need this kind of publicity!!!! What a terrible tragedy, our prayers go out to the friends and family of those killed or injured.