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Mother of all speeding tickets

S

SilverTorch

Golden Member
Linky

WABASHA (AP) - With a State Patrol airplane overhead, a Stillwater motorcyclist hit the throttle and possibly set the informal record for the fastest speeding ticket in Minnesota history: 205 mph.

On Saturday afternoon, State Patrol pilot Al Loney was flying near Wabasha, in southeastern Minnesota on the Wisconsin border, watching two motorcyclists racing along U.S. Highway 61.

When one of the riders shot forward, Loney was ready with his stopwatch. He clicked it once when the motorcycle reached a white marker on the road and again a quarter-mile later. The watch read 4.39 seconds, which Loney calculated to be 205 mph.

"I was in total disbelief," Loney told the St. Paul Pioneer Press for Tuesday's editions. "I had to double-check my watch because in 27 years I'd never seen anything move that fast."

Several law enforcement sources told the newspaper that, although no official records are kept, it was probably the fastest ticket ever written in the state.

After about three-quarters of a mile, the biker slowed to about 100 mph and let the other cycle catch up. By then Loney had radioed ahead to another state trooper, who pulled the two over soon afterward.

The State Patrol officer arrested the faster rider, 20-year-old Stillwater resident Samuel Armstrong Tilley, for reckless driving, driving without a motorcycle license - and driving 140 miles per hour over the posted speed limit of 65 mph.

A search of speeding tickets written by state troopers, who patrol most of the state's highways, between 1990 and February 2004 shows the next fastest ticket was for 150 mph in 1994 in Lake of the Woods County.

Tilley did not return calls from the newspaper to his home Monday. A working number for him could not immediately be found by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Only a handful of exotic sports cars can reach 200 mph, but many high-performance motorcycles can top 175 mph. With minor modifications, they can hit 200 mph. Tilley was riding a Honda 1000, Loney said.

Kathy Swanson of the state Office of Traffic Safety said unless Tilley was wearing the kind of protective gear professional motorcycle racers wear, he was courting death at 200 mph.

"I'm not entirely sure what would happen if you crashed at 200 miles per hour," Swanson said. "But it wouldn't be pretty, that's for sure."
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That 205 figure has a big error margin since the cop only recorded for 4.39 sec with his bare eyes. It's reasonable to give bare eye measurements a + or -1 sec error margin which translated to 25%. So that guy may actually be doing 155mph.
 
Originally posted by: welst10
That 205 figure has a big error margin since the cop only recorded for 4.39 sec with his bare eyes. It's reasonable to give bare eye measurements a + or -1 sec error margin which translated to 25%. So that guy may actually be doing 155mph.
Click to expand...

That does seem shamefully low-tech....
 
Originally posted by: alexeikgb
Originally posted by: Anubis
Originally posted by: alexeikgb
wow.... I'd like to see the fine for going 140 miles per hour over the posted speed limit of 65 mph....
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its called JAIL
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haha... prolly true
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The article indicates he was arrested for wreckless driving and driving without a motorcycle endorsement.
 
Like I said above, any good lawyer will easily strike down the 205 claim by the cop as it was not recorded by a radar but his bare eyes.
 
I would be terrified to go that fast on a motorcycle. It would take several people to find all of your parts if you wiped out. Yuck.
 
Originally posted by: welst10
That 205 figure has a big error margin since the cop only recorded for 4.39 sec with his bare eyes. It's reasonable to give bare eye measurements a + or -1 sec error margin which translated to 25%. So that guy may actually be doing 155mph.
Click to expand...
Correct. Airplane tickets are notoriously inaccurate, and cops are known to guess on the high side. Unfortunately for this guy, he will not be able to argue that he was not speeding, and is going to have a hard time in court.
Ironically, had he been on the German Autobahn, which has much lower accident and fatality rates than US freeways despite carrying similar traffic loads, he would not have gotten a ticket at all. But then, speed kills right? :roll:
 
Originally posted by: welst10
Like I said above, any good lawyer will easily strike down the 205 claim by the cop as it was not recorded by a radar but his bare eyes.
Click to expand...

Plea bargain down to 150MPH? 😀
 
Originally quoted from Article

"I'm not entirely sure what would happen if you crashed at 200 miles per hour," Swanson said. "But it wouldn't be pretty, that's for sure."
Click to expand...

Well... considering you wouldn't even hit the ground that fast if you jumped out of an airplane... I'd imagine it'd be something like throwing an egg at a brick wall.
 
Originally posted by: mobobuff
Originally quoted from Article

"I'm not entirely sure what would happen if you crashed at 200 miles per hour," Swanson said. "But it wouldn't be pretty, that's for sure."
Click to expand...

Well... considering you wouldn't even hit the ground that fast if you jumped out of an airplane... I'd imagine it'd be something like throwing an egg at a brick wall.
Click to expand...

i think your skin would just completely come off from skidding on the pavement
 
Originally posted by: Vic
Originally posted by: welst10
That 205 figure has a big error margin since the cop only recorded for 4.39 sec with his bare eyes. It's reasonable to give bare eye measurements a + or -1 sec error margin which translated to 25%. So that guy may actually be doing 155mph.
Click to expand...
Correct. Airplane tickets are notoriously inaccurate, and cops are known to guess on the high side. Unfortunately for this guy, he will not be able to argue that he was not speeding, and is going to have a hard time in court.
Ironically, had he been on the German Autobahn, which has much lower accident and fatality rates than US freeways despite carrying similar traffic loads, he would not have gotten a ticket at all. But then, speed kills right? :roll:
Click to expand...

I thought i just heard awhile back that the German goverment was considering putting speedlimits on the Autobahn because of the major accidents they've been having the past few years.
 
Originally posted by: Aharami
Originally posted by: mobobuff
Originally quoted from Article

"I'm not entirely sure what would happen if you crashed at 200 miles per hour," Swanson said. "But it wouldn't be pretty, that's for sure."
Click to expand...

Well... considering you wouldn't even hit the ground that fast if you jumped out of an airplane... I'd imagine it'd be something like throwing an egg at a brick wall.
Click to expand...

i think your skin would just completely come off from skidding on the pavement
Click to expand...

Not if you were wearing the proper racing gear.
 
Originally posted by: welst10
Like I said above, any good lawyer will easily strike down the 205 claim by the cop as it was not recorded by a radar but his bare eyes.
Click to expand...



Good Lawyer is an Oxymoron.


Ausm
 
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