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."

Comments

My word!

[Suki I]

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 ;)

Re:My word!

[hardburn]

The Swiss hate cars, even more than nanny-state California does. A 210+ mph ticket on a Veyron there had a max fine of $500.

Re:My word!

[pydev]

Yes, we hate cars going at 210mph or at 85mph through towns because they kill people

He shouldn't have gotten a $500 fine, he should have lost his license and have his car impounded. Hopefully, next time he will.

Re:My word!

[dmbasso]

Too bad you managed to escape.

Don't speed in CH

[ob0101011101]

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.

How to eliminate credit card debt

[Jodka]

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.

     

Re:fine, be that way.

[PopeRatzo]

In spite of the complications, there is a lot more justice in fines based on income or net worth.

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.