Originally Posted by pulse24

The cab was a twisted wreck, tangled around a pole. Smoke rose into the night air as rescue crews looked on helplessly. There was, in the end, nothing left to save.

There was a terrible irony at the scene of a deadly accident near Mt. Pleasant and St. Clair Ave. Tuesday night – it looked like a graphic scene from a video game.

And police fear that may have been the inspiration for the crash that killed a 46-year-old Toronto cab driver.

It happened around 10:30pm when two 18-year-olds were allegedly driving their parents’ Mercedes Benz cars at a high rate of speed up Mt. Pleasant.

As taxi driver Tahir Khan tried to make a left hand turn, one of the luxury automobiles appeared from out of nowhere, smashing directly into him.

“When he made that turn, two motor vehicles at a very high rate of speed were northbound,” relates Det. Paul Lobsinger. “He crossed directly into the path of those vehicles and one of these vehicles struck him.”

He died at the scene.

The car that hit the cab sat nearby badly damaged, but at first there was no sign of the other vehicle. The driver left the scene only to return minutes later. By then, police were waiting.

Investigators quickly determined the cause of the crash – excessive speed, likely because the two expensive cars were racing against each other.

And inside of one of them, an apparent motive – the video game Need For Speed, which allows users to race through a city avoiding obstacles and police.

Speeds in the game reach 300 kilometres. Cops theorize the accused were trying to turn the fantasy into reality, with tragic results.

Authorities contend street racing is becoming all too common a problem in the G.T.A. and they vow to clamp down on it in any way possible.

To prove it, they’ve laid the heaviest charges they could against the drivers.

Alexander Ryazanov and Wang−Piao Dumani Ross have both been accused of criminal negligence causing death. Ross also faces additional charges for leaving the scene of the crash.

Their families were at College Park courts on Wednesday morning, when both made their first appearance before a judge. They remain in custody pending bail hearings.

If convicted, the maximum penalty could be life in prison.