Hale, D-Salt Lake City, brought her concerns about the clandestine contests before the Legislature's Transportation Interim Committee on Tuesday.

"The craze of teenage street racing is going up. We need to find some way to address this," Hale said.

The number of teens ages 16 to 18 who were ticketed for street racing jumped from 150 in 1992 to more than 350 by 2002, according to a study by the University of Utah's Intermountain Injury Control Research Center. Street racing accounted for 1 percent of all citations issued to teens.

"It's a small percentage of all citations, but it appears to be a growing trend," said the center's statistician, Stacey Knight.

Hale said the committee's reaction to the need for new legislation was mixed. While some committee members seemed resigned that street racing is just another facet of "kids being kids," others agreed with her that increased penalties could curb the activity, Hale said.