Largest speeding fine ever?

[kb4ns]

Swedish driver gets world's largest speeding fine after 180mph chase | Mail Online

A speeding Swedish driver is facing the world‘s biggest ever motoring fine of 650,000 euros - around £538,000 - after being clocked at 180mph while driving through Switzerland.

The 37-year-old man‘s £140,000 Mercedes SLS AMG was impounded along with his driving licence after soaring along at two and-a-half times the speed limit on a Swiss motorway.

'We have no record of anyone being caught travelling faster in the country,' said a police spokesman.

The unnamed man was caught by a speed camera on the A12 highway between Bern and Lausanne on Friday.

The police arrested him shortly afterwards when he stopped in a layby and he was released after questioning.

It is believed he was collecting the brand new car from a seller in Germany.

Benoît Dumas, a police officer in the area where the SLS six-litre-engine car was impounded, said: 'He needed over half-a-kilometre of road to come to a halt.'

The driver had previously escaped being clocked by numerous speed cameras on his journey simply because he was going too fast and the instrument's were incapable of clocking any speed beyond 200kph.

It was a new generation of radar machines that finally caught him zooming along at close to 300kph.

'I think the speedo on the car, which is new, is faulty,' the driver told police.

He is unlikely to go to prison but is expected to be hit with the landmark fine because of the way speeding fines are administered in Switzerland.

When his case is judged by a magistrate the fine will be based on his income and the 'extraordinary speed' at which he was travelling.

He is threatened with the highest possible penalty of 300 days of fines at 3,600 Swiss francs a day which comes out to close to 650,000 euros.

In Switzerland and Germany it is common for fines to be levied in such a way. In Switzerland the level of the fine is always dependant on a person‘s income - and clearly the suspect in this speeding affair is very rich indeed.

The car will now undergo a technical inspection to see if his tale of a faulty odometer holds up.

[kb4ns]

By the way, that 650,000 euro is almost $830,000

[Garufa]

By the way, that 650,000 euro is almost $830,000

[Guest nozzle13]

Damn those damn cameras!!!

[kb4ns]

...zooming along at close to 300kph.

'I think the speedo on the car, which is new, is faulty,' the driver told police.

Wonder how that's gonna work out for him. I can't imagine anyone convincing a judge that they didn't realize they were traveling 180mph!

[Oh Shoot]

Wonder how that's gonna work out for him. I can't imagine anyone convincing a judge that they didn't realize they were traveling 180mph!

Past 125, it's always been kind of hard to tell just how much faster I'm going, but maybe that's just me.

- OS

[G27]

In Switzerland the level of the fine is always dependant on a person‘s income - and clearly the suspect in this speeding affair is very rich indeed.

Talk about marxism run amuck...

[kb4ns]

Talk about marxism run amuck...

No kidding. On the up side of that, I could get nailed for 20 over and get away with a $4 fine...

[Il Duce]

180? thats it? ive done MUCH faster LOL

[Guest nozzle13]

Arizona hates cameras:

[Garufa]

Talk about marxism run amuck...

Be thankful you are where you is. Many states base yearly vehicle registration fees on a percentage of blue book value.

[vontar]

I wonder if he can say he was just holding with traffic?

This time I am not going to say to bad for him, he knew the law. He knew what would happen if he got caught. Not everyone in America knows about how the speeding ticket prices are in Europe but it has been that way for years. As Americans we can easily think that is unfair that he has to pay so much more then a person that might do the same thing that makes less money, however that is the law of the land. We might disagree with it and believe it to be unfair, but simple fact is, he was driving like an idiot.

BTW, no one should believe the story about the faulty odometer. Anyone that has driven any reasonable amount of time can almost judge their speed by looking outside. I know in Germany Autobahn there are no speed limits when the road is open, and in other areas of Europe the speed limits are higher then the US I believe. Still when you know what the normal speed limit for your area is, most people can hold at it with out constantly looking at the speed. Also you know when you are going beyond it as well.

100 MPH looks a hell of allot different then 70 MPH. I am not going to convert to KPH

Edited August 13, 2010 by vontar
typo

[Garufa]

I wonder if he can say he was just holding with traffic?

I tried that defense before..."Your honor, I was only maintaing the flow of traffic." He didn't buy it.

[Il Duce]

The reason the Europeans can get by with higher speed limits is that they are better drivers. It is MUCH MUCH tougher to get a license there than here with years of training required.

[Erik88]

fastest I've driven was 144 m.p.h. Honestly though it doesn't feel any faster than going 120 which I used to do on a regular basis. I sold my fast car though after I grew up a bit and realized I was going to kill myself.

Would you believe 144 was done in a Nissan Maxima I had????? Not what you'd expect from a mom-car

[Sidinman]

fastest I've driven was 144 m.p.h. Honestly though it doesn't feel any faster than going 120 which I used to do on a regular basis. I sold my fast car though after I grew up a bit and realized I was going to kill myself.

Would you believe 144 was done in a Nissan Maxima I had????? Not what you'd expect from a mom-car

I took a little spin on a friends Honda V65 Magna about ten yrs. ago, look down for just a second it read 165. Still had another a gear to go, never went there though.

[dralarms]

Fastest I've been is in an old 70 cougar XR7 that I inherited from my brother who got it from my sister, who had a friend that owned a race team and had them rebuild it, I got to 100 MPh once on a long stretch in east NC, at 100 I could stomp it and the front end tried to lift off the ground. I'm a big chicken, I backed off of it and it never saw above 80 (and that's on the interstate) again.

Sure wished I had that car back, sold it during some troubled times and heard the guy did not take care of it and blew the motor apart

[LagerHead]

The fastest I've ever been is about 140 in a Porsche 944 Turbo on the Autobahn. I was a passenger for that. Driving I have only gotten to about 120.

[rg65]

By the way, that 650,000 euro is almost $830,000

That would get you "officer of the month"!!

[Guest Glock23ForMe]

That would get you "officer of the month"!!

BAHAHAHAHAHA! They wouldn't need speed cameras anymore then.

[wareagle]

Past 125, it's always been kind of hard to tell just how much faster I'm going, but maybe that's just me.

- OS

25 years ago, I was stopped for going about 140-150 in a 55 in the desert. I was almost excited to get ticketed to see what the radar said. Instead, the officer issued a generic 120+ ticket for wasting fuel ($20). I could not get exact speed from the officer because "it's always been kind of hard to tell just how much faster than 120 speeders are going" and the "dept does not want to create a contest for setting top speed records".

[monkeylizard]

[pedant]The article said odometer in the last line. Erm....speedometer[/pedant]

As for the Euro-tickets, I kind of like their graduated system in the sense that it can be more of a deterent than our system. I remember when I got my 1st ticket. That $120 ticket hurt on my $6.75/hr paycheck and I was gun-shy about more than about 5 to 7 mph over the limit for a long time. Now if I have to pay $120 ticket, I'm not happy about it, but it's not really going to cramp my style or get me to slow down for more than a few days (weeks at most). If I got slapped with one that really hurts, I'd think twice about grossly exceeding the limit for a loooong time after the fine. But that point of pain is different from person to person, based largely on income. A single parent with an $18K income would feel the pain at a $25 fine. The tiered fine structure seems to be an effective way of doing what tickets are supposed to do, cause the cited driver to slow down. Oh, and make a lot of money for new police cars.

Edited August 16, 2010 by monkeylizard

[hardknox00001]

[pedant]The article said odometer in the last line. Erm....speedometer[/pedant]

As for the Euro-tickets, I kind of like their graduated system in the sense that it can be more of a deterent than our system. I remember when I got my 1st ticket. That $120 ticket hurt on my $6.75/hr paycheck and I was gun-shy about more than about 5 to 7 mph over the limit for a long time. Now if I have to pay $120 ticket, I'm not happy about it, but it's not really going to cramp my style or get me to slow down for more than a few days (weeks at most). If I got slapped with one that really hurts, I'd think twice about grossly exceeding the limit for a loooong time after the fine. But that point of pain is different from person to person, based largely on income. A single parent with an $18K income would feel the pain at a $25 fine. The tiered fine structure seems to be an effective way of doing what tickets are supposed to do, cause the cited driver to slow down. Oh, and make a lot of money for new police cars.

If you get a ticket nowadays, for the most part, $120 would be a bargain.

[kb4ns]

If you get a ticket nowadays, for the most part, $120 would be a bargain.

Most (if not all) of ours are under $105. Most of Memphis PD's are under $60.

[Guest KimberChick]

I believe there's an episode of Top Gear from a couple years back that made reference to Switzerland's speeding fines. The guys were in search of the best driving road in Europe.

Regardless, I wish the US would adopt some of the licensing requirements of European countries. At least they know what "flash to pass" is when used in the left lane on the interstate...sigh...