Street racing has again taken its toll, this time resulting in seven injured (six hospitalized, two in critical condition) and a massive fire. KTLA 5 reports that on Monday evening, a Mercedes-Benz and a Dodge Challenger were flying through the streets of South L.A. at high speed when they both lost control and careened into a Metro bus.

Luckily the bus was empty except for the driver, because – as we can see in the photos – it was cleaved almost completely in half. A fire instantly sprang up and consumed the vehicles, and bystanders and police rushed in to help pull people from the cars.

Witnesses claimed that the cars were no doubt racing, and had been soaring down the street at high speeds – nearly missing others before crashing into the bus. However, investigators are still looking into whether or not it was a street race and haven’t yet given a definitive answer.

Nevertheless, it’s more than likely that street racing was a factor in this accident. It isn’t hard to tell when other cars are racing around you (two or more cars traveling well over the speed limit together is kind of a dead giveaway), and multiple witnesses have testified that both cars were guilty as charged.

It’s extremely fortunate that no one was killed, and we’re hoping for the complete recovery of everyone injured. However, this is just another shining example of the inevitable consequences of street racing (assuming that the cars were, in fact, racing). This accident may not have claimed any lives, but many others have.

Browsing through the news, we come across far too many reports of both cars and human lives destroyed as the result of reckless driving. As always, we implore all of our readers to save those lead-feet for the track.