Geez, Officer, I Didn’t Know I Was Going That Fast

October 5, 2010 | Uncategorized

Back in 2003 in northern Florida, I was driving along one of those long boring stretches of road you come across every now and then. If you do any long distance driving you know and dread the type — long and flat, heavily forested on both sides, a wide grassy median isolating you from other traffic, not a soul in sight except for an occasional fellow driver.

The road just seems to go on and on and on, and you become almost hypnotized by the passing trees and road markers. You can’t help but think “when is this going to end?” and try to combat the boredom by putting a bit more pressure on the accelerator.

Rather than whine about my boredom, I’ll cut to the chase. The cop who passed me going in the other direction said he clocked me at 94 mph. He was a nice about it though, and only put me down for 73 so I wouldn’t get points on my license. I think the dog hanging out the back window trying to lick his face helped my case.

I got to thinking about this while I was reading about a Swedish driver in Switzerland who is said to have received the world’s most expensive speeding ticket.

Driving along highway A12 near Bern in his new $140,000 Mercedes, he was going so fast that an old radar unit couldn’t clock him. Up the road a newer one did though, and nailed him at 180 mph in a 70 mph zone.

His excuse to the Polizei was he thought the speedometer on his new car was faulty. Oh, come on, even I came up with something better than that. Go get yourself a dog.

Unfortunately for him, Swiss judges calculate speeding fines not only on how fast you were driving, but also on how wealthy you are. This is a country of bankers, after all.

And his fine was — buckle your seat belt for this — just over US$1 million.

Obviously, someone’s given new meaning to driving while loaded.

Jim Ferri