A Swedish man took his six-litre Mercedes SLS to Switzerland and was caught on the A12 motorway (speed limit 120 kph) doing almost 300 kph. That's 180 mph in real money. He had passed many speed cameras, but had not been snapped because he was going too fast - most of the cameras can only read up to 200 kph. Only when he passed a new-generation camera that could react to his speed was he zapped.
The Swiss system of fines is based on the offender's income as well as the severity of the offence, and this guy appears to have drawn himself a poor hand. With a car costing £140,000, and caught at a speed described as the fastest anyone has ever been caught travelling in Switzerland, he was going to have his trousers taken down, that's for sure.
£650,000. A fine of over half-a-million pounds.
Now, the guy is probably a complete dick, and I have no time for those who use their money and clout to flout the law that other, lesser, people have to obey. But isn't that just a tiny bit draconian? That's an average UK worker's gross salary for about 30 years.
More to the point, how many people in Europe have been killed by drivers doing 180 mph on an autoroute, compared with the number killed by drink-drivers? I suspect the answers are zero, and lots.
(Source.)
He is probably related to a Mercedes owner that a friend of mine had the pleasure of having an unpleasant discourse with at our local Secretary of State. That is the place were we here in the Great Lake State renew our licenses get new tags, etc. It is usually very busy so the best course of action is to arrive early and wait by the door.
ReplyDeleteThe Mercedes operator was under the impression that the line started in his car. He started yelling at my buddy, Hey I was here first. My Friend told him the line starts at the door and you have to be in it to hold that place. Our Mercedes operator strongly disagreed, so my friend told him, you want to go first your going to have to move me. This pretty much ended the disagreement because my friend is a rather large and looks somewhat menacing. He is a pretty nice guy if you don't cross him.
I feel the same way about these types who think it's their world and your in it. I think a proper punishment for such behavior is they should have to relinquish ownership of their cars to me.
Hehe - good idea. But would you really want one? I've often toyed with the idea of what I would buy if I had a big win on the lottery or something. The answer is always lots of bikes (and outbuilding to keep them in), but when consider cars I can only get any enthusiasm for replacing my everyday etsate car/station wagon with a newer one. It tows my trailers, it takes the dog in the back, it's comfy and reasonabely fast A to B. But I can't drum up any interest in it. Those Mercs are brilliant from a styling/engineering point of view, but I wouldn't want to own one. For one thing, people would think I was the kind of dickhead who actually liked that kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the arrogant owners. Nothing is funnier than getting guys like that to face down. Large size, a beard, tattoos and a 3-day-old T-shirt all help. (I can summon 3 out of those 4.)
I would probably get a new Ford F-250 to replace my ten year old one. Hard to loose all that utility. I would need a pole barn to store all the bikes I would purchase. But I do like a good drive in a sporty car as well. I would have to pick up a Z06 Corvette as well as a few vintage muscle cars.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, those dickheads are usually paper lions, call their bluff and they fold like a bad poker hand.