Swede faces world-record $1m speeding penalty

Heh!

Discuss.

Tea? Coffee? Biscuits are over on the table, no Garibaldi I'm afraid; not been enough flies this year.

A million dollar fine AND a small penis… shame 😉

While I can't see the justification for $1m in fines, I can't help feeling a certain schadenfreude.

Surely the normal speeding fine on here is a tirade from TJ followed by a public hanging?

You have to be fairly numb to do that on a public road, especially in Switzerland where you get fined for flushing the loo after 10pm.

Under Swiss law, the level of fine is determined by the wealth of the driver and the speed recorded.

I like this very much…

crazy-legs – Member

Surely the normal speeding fine on here is a tirade from TJ followed by a public hanging?

Nope – thats the penalty for bleated about being fined!

If you speed, get caught and cough up its OK – its those that bleat about "tax on motorists" and " money making cameras" that get my ire.

nickc – Member

Under Swiss law, the level of fine is determined by the wealth of the driver and the speed recorded.

I like this very much…

This happened in the UK for a while but it was stopped because of bleated from the daily wail et al.

You'll be expecting folk to pay for using other people's parking spaces next!

nice dig al.
seems a good way of doing a detterent all for it here. the fine not the speed

Nothing personal junkyard.

I accept the clampers are out of order but that doesn't make it right to benefit from using someone else's property without their consent.

If you speed, get caught and cough up its OK – its those that bleat about "tax on motorists" and " money making cameras" that get my ire.

Oh sweet Jebus, I'm agreeing with TJ twice in one day. I need a lie down.

nice car, if he has the means and he wasn't putting anyone else at risk far enough, and as for proportional fines, sound fair enough to me. I once got arrested for shaving a moose in Switzerland, luckily I was skint so they just took all the buttons from my clothes.

The big deterrent is actually the liklihood of getting caught. You can wave all the fines you like about, but if there is little or no chance of being caught people will not modify their behaviour.

Has to be said though, a fine being calculated according to ability to pay and the severity of the offence is I feel very sensible. Mind you you can smell the boiling wee all the way over here from Daily Mail towers at the very thought

I can "smell the boiling wee all the way over here from Daily Mail towers stw forum user's computers at the very thought "

In the UK it would almost certainly result in a custodial sentence for dangerous driving.

So if he has the money and the potential alternative was jail he should pay

This is a strange story, it turns out he lives in a caravan in a field with other Swedish romanys. There are suggestions that the car wasn't his or that he was delivering it somewhere…

Full story (in French – sorry)

He's now claiming that he was trying to fix a misfire and that his speedo wasn't working..

Under Swiss law, the level of fine is determined by the wealth of the driver and the speed recorded.

Seems fair to me.

Oh the Mail readers will be happy – Gypsy fined $1m for anti-social behaviour.

Oh the Mail readers will be happy – Gypsy fined $1m for anti-social behaviour.

😆

Now we know why Jeremy Clarkson et al don't speed in Switzerland

Under Swiss law, the level of fine is determined by the wealth of the driver and the speed recorded

Seems fair enough to me. He WAS hammering it and he WAS in Switzerland..! Tough titty.

The thing that pees me off with fines (in the UK) is when they catch some twunt with no insurance and fine them £200 or so. It's not enough. We pay about that much for our car, but we have paid more in the past, and a £200 makes me wonder if it's worth just not bothering TBH to insure the car (Not really, but you catch my drift) The fines aren't hig enough.
Now, I've been hit by an unisured driver* and couldn't claim a penny as I was TPFT, even though it wasn't my fault. If the fines were, say £2000 minimum, they could stick the extra in a big fund to help pay for uninsured losses, which currently are being funded by those who do have insurance in their higher premiums.

(*Claimed stolen at the time, 5 mins after the collision, driver ran off, police actually winessed the crash. Car had no tax or insurance and inside were summonses for no MoT and other stuff. The only consolation was that my car was £250 worth, the other was £1500 worth, so it cost them more than it did me, but I even had to pay for fekking recovery of my own car)

Under Swiss law, the level of fine is determined by the wealth of the driver and the speed recorded.

Depends on how it is calculated – there needs to be a minimum.

He could've done that legally on German Autobahn. They've done studies that show no difference in safety on their speed limited sections of Autobahn to unlimited.

Therefore, I think that's ridiculous – as it was when I got £500 fine & 14 day ban for doing 103 on motorway, filmed by plain police car(my first offence). Guy in court got £100 for knocking his neighbours teeth out.

I think that's ridiculous – as it was when I got £500 fine & 14 day ban for doing 103 on motorway, filmed by plain police car(my first offence

house, what do I win?

He could've done that legally on German Autobahn. They've done studies that show no difference in safety on their speed limited sections of Autobahn to unlimited.

IIRC that applies to people doing the same speed, i.e 100kph on an unrestricted or restricted autobahn.

From experience the unrestricted ones are just one closure after another due to accidents (this was during the world cup though so may not be reprisentattive).

doing 103 on motorway, filmed by plain police car

That's a crying shame. They should at least give you a sporting chance by painting the motors fluoro pink and not giving them cars that can do over 80.

Under Swiss law, the level of fine is determined by the wealth of the driver and the speed recorded.

I like this very much…

Me too. And it's the norm in Finland, I think the previous record fine was the boss of Nokia. £200 is no deterrent at all to a multi millionaire.

As for sympathy for him – tough cheese. You know the rules, you break em, you cough up. End of. You can argue that it's safe til you're blue in the face, doesn't make any bloody difference. The rule isn't 'drive as fast as you reckon you can' clearly, cos that woudl lead to mayhem.

Btw I was told (by a German bloke) that the autobahn doens't have any more accidents than other motorways, but when there ARE accidents, they are really really bad.

Isn't it the points that's the main punishment – here anyway?