The fine for speeding highest ever recorded did not come from a German road or a French motorway. It arose in Switzerland, and they gave it to the driver of a Ferrari Testarossa. The most curious thing is that they did not put it in for pushing the power of this 90’s classic to the limit since it was traveling at 137 km/h.
The result was a fine of more than 247,000 euros, an amount that officially appears in the Guinness World Records as the biggest fine for speeding.
A record fine. The highest speeding fine officially recorded was imposed in Switzerland in January 2010. A court in the canton of St. Gallen sentenced the driver of a Ferrari Testarossa to pay about $290,000 (more than 247,000 euros at the exchange rate) after being detected by radar traveling at 137 km/h in a section limited to 80 km/h.
The amount of the fine was not arbitrary. In Switzerland, judges do not set fines based on rigid tables according to the infraction, but rather based on the real impact they must have on each driver’s pocket.
A system designed so that everyone hurts equally. Swiss legislation contemplates a model of fines proportional to the driver’s income, instead of establishing a table of fixed amounts as happens in Spain. This applies an equivalence factor with respect to economic capacity, making the sanctions truly have a deterrent nature.
A fine of 200 euros for a person who charges a salary of 16,000 euros It can be a compelling reason for you to take your foot off the accelerator when you don’t play. But that same figure is insignificant for someone with a net worth of several million euros.
Sanctions in Switzerland are at another level. In the case of the driver of the Testarossa, the sanction was triggered because the driver declared assets that exceeded 22 million dollars and accumulated a record for similar violations. For the Swiss authorities, the fine should reflect not only the risk committed, but also the economic impact it should generate.
The 2010 record is not an isolated case. According to collects the local newspaper 24hourslast August a billionaire resident in Lausanne was fined 90,000 Swiss francs (about 96,500 euros) after exceeding the 50 km/h limit on the road while traveling at 77 km/h. Although the violation was not extreme, the final calculation was, and was justified by evaluating income, assets, and family circumstances. 96,000 euros for exceeding the speed limit by 27 km/h.
Switzerland is not the only country that applies it. Finland shares a sanctioning philosophy similar to that applied in Switzerland. There are also fines calculated according to income, with precedents that have exceeded 120,000 euros.
One of the best known cases It is that of a businessman who was traveling at 82 km/h in an area limited to 50 km/h and ended up facing a fine of 120,000 euros due to his level of income. In Austria, for example, a millionaire They took away his driving license and the Bugatti Veyron was immediately seized for traveling at 123 km/h in an area limited to 60 km/h.
Spain will never come close to these figures. The Spanish traffic legislation is located at the opposite extreme. The fines depend exclusively on the margin exceeded over the speed limit, not on the financial capacity of the offender. Thus, the case of the Finnish driver fined 120,000 euros, in Spain would be resolved with a fine of 400 euros and four points less on the driving license. In fact, you would even have a 50% discount on the fine if you pay it in the first few days.
In Spain, the most serious sanctions are penalized with a maximum of 600 euros and the withdrawal of six points on the license, without there being a link between the sanctions and the level of income. This implies that someone with high purchasing powermay consider the cost of the infringement to be minimal, thus losing its deterrent nature.
In Xataka | The DGT allows legal circulation at 150 km/h without being an emergency vehicle. The secret: a sign
Image | Unsplash (Noah Boyer)
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings