But Officer...
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Hi all,
Just came across this article and thought I'd share it. The sad part is these are some of the roads we use to air out our Esprit's, now some cyclist is gonna ruin it for all of us. Oh Well...
WABASHA, Minn. (Sept. 21) - With a State Patrol airplane overhead, a 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."
Happy Motoring! ...Jim'85TE
Just came across this article and thought I'd share it. The sad part is these are some of the roads we use to air out our Esprit's, now some cyclist is gonna ruin it for all of us. Oh Well...
WABASHA, Minn. (Sept. 21) - With a State Patrol airplane overhead, a 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."
Happy Motoring! ...Jim'85TE
andecorp said:
How can they give a ticket without any proof? Just the cops watch and perception is enough to give someone a ticket?? Here if they don't have the radar gun's reading to show you as proof, they can't give you a ticket no matter what you have done.
Perhaps in Australia.
But in the USA, there are more valild forms of proof of speeding than just radar. They can follow you and clock your speed with their speedometer. Or they can time you over a marked interval from the air. In Minnesota they paint white markers on the road every quarter mile on some roads expressly for that purpose. Or in the case of 205 mph, an experienced officer's considered opinion that you were in excess of 55 mph would carry some weight. ;-)
Regards,
Tim Engel
Lotus Owners Oftha North
Don't know about other parts of the country but here in Florida they can and do write citations for "failure to observe a traffic control device" which covers among other things, exceeding the posted speed. All they have to say is they were driving the speed limit and you were going considerably faster. Don't even have to post your speed on the ticket.
As a certifed speed radar operator I can tell you that you don't even need a measuring device to charge someone with speeding. When an officer is certified to use radar, part of the test is to ride with an instructor on regular roads and estimate the speed of other vehicles within 1 mph either direction. The instructor verifies the results with radar. You must hit 10 out of 12 to pass. So being "radar" certified also means that you can estimate a cars speed within 1 mph and the judges/magistrates know that. I was pretty intimidated when I heard that I would have to past that test however the training is pretty damn good, and when you spend all your time "in traffic" so to speak, you really get good at it. Of course this is in the USA and may vary state to state.
John
94 S4
John
94 S4
Esprit2 said:
[quote=andecorp]How can they give a ticket without any proof? Just the cops watch and perception is enough to give someone a ticket?? Here if they don't have the radar gun's reading to show you as proof, they can't give you a ticket no matter what you have done.
They tried that painted line crap here in Alabama for a while... car guys and bike guys would go out at night paint over or tar over the second stripe, then re-paint it about 250 or 300 yards down the road just to be annoying... After a couple years, the counties that tried this just gave up. It was really no more than a ploy to make a few bucks off backwoods nowhere county roads where mostly good drivers liked to go and blow the cob webs out of their motors... as evident of the roads they "painted".
These same counties first and also attempted to close down local tracks as well... giving drivers and riders no place other than the backwoods to "run"... Thank God for voting. As I said... this did not last long.
...wonder if that guy was listening to Sammy?
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55
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Drive topless!!!
Cameron
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