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Swiss Millionaire Hit By Record Speed Fine
tugfoigel writes "A Swiss court has slapped a local millionaire with a record speeding fine of $290,000.The man was reportedly caught driving a red Ferrari Testarossa at 137km/h (85mph) through a village.The penalty was calculated based on the unnamed motorist's wealth — assessed by the court as $22.7m — and on his status as a repeat offender."
How can that possibly be fair? Wait! Now I know where to speed for cheap. Shouldn't be charging me more than about $5 for the same ticket ;)
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In Switzerland the people don't give way to the car, and it's a good thing. A typical village speed limit is 50km/h, or 30km/h in the single-lane back streets, so this guy was doing 2x or 3x the speed limit. Your typical Swiss village was laid-out 500 years before cars existed, and has narrow roads, no curb on the gutter, and twisty turns around houses etc. The children are encouraged to walk to school un-escorted from age 5 onwards (not be driven a few blocks in an 5 litre V8 "SUV" as in Australia), so there's a very real chance of someone distracted by a butterfly not crossing the road as well as they could. The speed limit on the highway is 120km/h. And FWIW, the curve to the speeding fines is very steep. My wife got a few ~5km/h over speeding fines and they were usually less than 50 franks (USD$50). But once you start getting > 30km/h over the posted limit, the fines get huge.
According to the values given in the article the amount of the penalty is about 1.3 percent of net worth. For those with a negative net worth because you have student loans, mortgages and credit card debt I recommend speeding through small villages in Switzerland. Because the penalty will be a negative amount, the government will pay you. Keep speeding until your net worth is $0.00 then stop.
If you can not afford a car which reaches excessive speeds, take out a loan.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Wouldn't it be nice if we lived in that world where nothing ever broke down and all roads were straight.
My God, it's Full of Source!
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getting traffic courts into income statements is a whole other level of hell, but ... based on the assessed value of the vehicle involved in the incident - this may have merit.
My God, it's Full of Source!
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In spite of the complications, there is a lot more justice in fines based on income or net worth. Otherwise, the wealthy feel no bite at all from the same offense that leaves someone else deciding between food or rent for the month. Fixed fines where income is variable is like sentencing one person to 10 years when another gets a month for the same offense.
I absolutely agree. And the same should apply to civil judgments and cases of corporate lawbreaking.
To fine a company $10k per day for pouring poison into a river, when it would cost the company $25k per day to dispose of it legally does not make sense.
I live in an expensive part of Chicago, but I bought my place before the prices went crazy. I'm by far the poorest person on the block and I make a decent living. I have seen my neighbors consider a $50 parking ticket less than a minor annoyance and completely disregard No Parking signs. A neighbor of mine told me that she just considers getting parking tickets to be part of "the cost of doing business" although I'm not sure what business she's talking about since her husband's the breadwinner and she gets most of her parking tickets shopping downtown or on Michigan Avenue. If I were to get a $50 parking ticket, I'd feel really bad, seeing it as a nice dinner out for my wife and I that we won't be able to have. In fact, I'm likely to get a frying pan across the noggin if my wife found out I got a parking ticket and it wasn't a matter of life or death.
Yes, I believe all fines should be based on income.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Why wouldn't vehicle value be a fair proxy for this without all the privacy problems?
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So rich brats don't buy a clunker and burn up the roads just for fun.
In the Netherlands, that guy would just loose his car and his driver's licence. But for some inexplicable reason, I do not know of any country that would simply charge him for murder, because that is what it really is. Not knowing who exactly you are going to kill does not make it less murderous.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Fixed fines where income is variable is like sentencing one person to 10 years when another gets a month for the same offense.
Or, in some cases, carry an even less fair disparity, in practical terms.
The Ferrari Testarossa isn't a recent car nor a particular valuable Ferrari. The original model had 380 bhp and isn't terribly quick (acceleration-wise) by current standards, especially not compared to the pictured 599 GTB Fiorano.
Ferraris have long gearing, so it would have been easier for this guy to hit 85 in town with a current Mustang GT than this old Ferrari.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
You'll never reach 0...
Maybe not, but as the old joke about the mathematician and the engineer goes, you'll get close enough!
Tell you what, you want to race around at high speed? Do what other responsible people do: rent some time at the track. Or, go make your own country and build your own roads. But if you want to drive on public roads, you play by our rules. Like it, lump it, or whine about it, them's the breaks, kid.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Wouldn't it be nice if we lived in that world where nothing ever broke down and all roads were straight.
No. Then there would be no place for British sports cars.
This ain't rocket surgery.
You'll never reach 0 if you get paid a part of your current negative net worth, only approach it with infinite speeding tickets.
Maybe so, if money were continuous, but in the case of speeding tickets, you're stuck with discrete units of $0.01. Whether you hit $0 or not is a matter of rounding :)
Huh? The ticket is proportional to your wealth. How can it be excessive?
No sig today...
How can it be excessive?
Easy: if the proportion is too high.
A ticket like that in CA would result in revocation of license, a criminal charge, mandatory jail time and fine many times that...and god help you if you so much as had a shot of NyQuil in you at the time.
http://jalopnik.com/5318413/top-gear-played-by-bogus-210%252B-mph-bugatti-veyron-ticket-too