MURRIETA -- Illegal street racing is believed to have been a factor in a February crash that killed a Murrieta girl, police said Tuesday.

Debra Lynne Tagliavia, 16, died at the scene of the Feb. 19 crash on Jackson Avenue, south of Via Diamante. She was a passenger in a 1992 Honda Civic driven by 17-year-old Adam Blaine Luca of Murrieta, according to Murrieta police.

Police will be forwarding reports to the Riverside County district attorney's office requesting that criminal charges be filed against Luca, Cpl. Jay Froboese said.

Luca has not been arrested and no charges have been filed against him in connection with Tagliavia's death.

When Luca's car slid into oncoming traffic, a southbound full-size Ford pickup was unable to stop in time and slammed into the passenger side of the Honda, killing Tagliavia.

Froboese said after the crash that, in his many years as a police officer, he has never seen the front of one vehicle punch as far into another vehicle as happened in this crash.

Luca and the driver of another Honda Civic were involved in "an impromptu race" when the fatal crash happened, traffic Officer Frank Lavigne said Tuesday.

The two Hondas were traveling side by side, approaching slower traffic and Luca tried to pass other vehicles as the driver of the second Honda slowed down, Lavigne said.

When Luca accelerated and veered across the lanes into the center median, he tried to recover but overcorrected, which sent the car into a sideways skid into oncoming traffic, resulting in the crash, the officer said.

"This is an example of how you don't need a tremendous amount of speed for something catastrophic to happen," Lavigne said.

Based on evidence at the scene, officers believe Luca's Honda was traveling at a speed in the mid- to high-50 mph range before the impact. The primary cause of the crash was that the Honda was on the wrong side of the road with a contributing factor of speeding, police said.

"There is also evidence (the drivers) were racing," Lavigne said.

Just three days earlier, Lavigne said he pulled Luca over and "discussed street racing" with him. Luca and another driver drove past officers that day and Luca revved the Honda's engine, the officer said.

Officers checked Luca's Honda and found that the intake had been modified, though legally, Lavigne said. Such modifications are done to increase the horsepower of a vehicle.

Both Froboese and Lavigne say they are seeing an increase in race-modified cars in Murrieta.

"It's not an organized effort right now," Lavigne said, "but there are quite a few of those cars out there."

Froboese said the Murrieta Police Department has sent officers to specialized street-racing enforcement schools over the last couple of years "because we are starting to see more and more racers in the city."

Officers are trained to identify possible modified racers visually or by how the car sounds, the corporal said.

Drivers can be issued tickets ordering them to bring illegally modified cars back to factory standards and not allowing them to drive the vehicles again until they are restored to stock. A sticker is placed on a cited car, and if officers again see the car being driven and it has not been repaired, it can be impounded, Lavigne said.

"It is extremely expensive to the owner to bring the car back to stock," Froboese said. "It is a lengthy, costly process to bring it back to legal standards."

Froboese said there are a number of dangers when it comes to street racing.

"Many times, this is a teen's first car and they are very inexperienced drivers behind the wheel of these modified, lightweight, sometimes fragile cars," he said.

Plus, they are driving at high speeds during these street races, he added.

"A lot of times they don't even have to hit anything. They just lose control of the car and it rolls and comes apart," Froboese said.

The illegal street-racing issue also has received the attention of Assemblyman John Benoit, R-Palm Desert.

The former California Highway Patrol commander has introduced a bill that would increase penalties for drivers involved in such action.

"Illegal street racing continues to plague communities statewide, particularly the Inland Empire where incidents of street racing are up significantly," Benoit said in a release.

Benoit states the Department of Motor Vehicles reports that 7,640 drivers were convicted for engaging in speed contests in 2005, up 9 percent from the previous year.

Under the bill Benoit has proposed, a driver in an illegal street race who caused great bodily injury could be charged with a felony or a misdemeanor. As the law is now, only a misdemeanor can be charged.

A felony conviction can result in a state prison sentence, while a misdemeanor can lead only to a maximum of a year in county jail.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.