Inwood residents living on edge as drag races keep taking over neighborhood

Inwood is under siege by street racers who roar up and down the neighborhood’s main drag, making residents paranoid they’ll be run down by a speeding driver.

Sherman Avenue, which runs less than a mile, serves as a sort of Main Street in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood. It’s usually filled with empanada stands and neighbors playing dominoes. But for years, it’s also been a notorious hotspot for drag racers who drive like maniacs.

An early morning drag race nearly turned fatal earlier this month. Police said drivers of a Corvette and a Mercedes-Benz were racing through the neighborhood about 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 20 when they crashed at Sherman Avenue and West 204th Street, sending both cars onto the sidewalk and into the front of a deli. The aftermath, which passersby captured on video, showed mangled cars and a pedestrian splayed out on the sidewalk in pain.

Police said two people in the Corvette and a pedestrian were injured, and the Mercedes-Benz driver ran off.

West Harlem resident Eric Torres, the Corvette driver who allegedly caused the crash, was charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. The Manhattan district attorney’s office said he was also arrested and charged last September for driving a stolen 2025 Acura TSX that had stolen New Jersey license plates inside, adding that he later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.

Locals said they’ve had enough of the racing, and are calling on the city to make changes to Inwood’s streets to prevent speeding.