8 March 2010

Maserati clocked at 195km/h (Hume Highway)

7 March 2010 | SammyLivesHere

Finally!!!! I’m sick of him tearing up the local streets; and jumped for joy when I see he’s lost his license – but why did he have to cross the border to get caught – bring back speed cameras in the suburbs I say! I know I harp on about 50 km/hr/zones; but if everyone slowed down suburban noise would be reduced; pets & children would be safer, accidents would be less; and stress would go down 🙂

This guy thought the Hume Highway was his private raceway; so can you imagine what he thought he was allowed to do in his suburb!

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March 7, 2010 – 9:43AM

A man driving his wife and children in a Maserati has been clocked at 195km/h on a highway in southern NSW.

Police say they confiscated the licence of the man after he was detected speeding in the silver Maserati on the Hume Highway at Marulan in a 110km/h zone about 6.30pm (AEDT) on Saturday.

The 42-year-old driver from Deakin in the ACT was accompanied by his wife and two children.

He has been charged with speeding.

AAP

[Reference: http://www.theage.com.au/nsw/maserati-clocked-at-195kmh-20100307-ppzu.html]

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p19:33 am 22 Mar 10

westyonline said :

Lots of money does’nt equal justice!!!

I know there are some European countries which tie traffic fines to your means to pay them.

westyonline9:09 pm 21 Mar 10

just because a car can go fast,does’nt mean that the loose nut behind the wheel can think just as fast when he is “in control” of it….i hope this bloke has a good lawyer,OH he probably does,hes a Richy!!!!a good stern talking to should probably do the job!!CUT OFF HIS RIGHT FOOT!!!!Lots of money does’nt equal justice!!!

Anna Key9:46 pm 15 Mar 10

peterh said :

if he was doing 195, and, on rounding the bend found two trucks engaging in “overtaking” in poor visibility due to fog / rain, would he be able to stop?

Then he/the family would blame the police, RTA, the government, the road or the car manufacturer.

peterh3:05 pm 15 Mar 10

if he was doing 195, and, on rounding the bend found two trucks engaging in “overtaking” in poor visibility due to fog / rain, would he be able to stop? in the past couple of weeks, I have seen idiots doing 130 – getting pulled over, and a fairly serious accident on the highway on my way back from sydney 2 weeks ago. The sydney bound traffic was stopped back as far as the goulburn turn off. Imagine if he piled into the back of a stationary car. just because he has a performance car, doesn’t mean he can go fast in it. Not every other driver is traveling at 110, some drivers sit on 80…

DavoDavo2:28 pm 12 Mar 10

shauno said :

What ever you do don’t go to Europe. This thing happens daily even in France with the motor way speed limit set at 130km/hr the average in the fast lane is around 150km to 160km with the occasional pull over out of the way for a car doing 200 plus. But this is the Hume highway were talking about its only a dead straight multi lane concrete highway where in Australia its been deemed to be only safe at 110Km. Its a real frustration coming back to Australia and trying to drive vast distances with our eyes glued to the speedo paranoid of speed cameras and cops hiding behind trees.

Dont get me wrong im all for slow speeds in the built up areas I just wish they had consistent speeds not 4 different speed zones in a few kms. And I think the the speed limit on the 4 lane sections of the Hume should be like France 130km in the dry and 110km in the wet just to relieve the shear boredom and fatigue.

This happens in England too, I go there quite frequently and drive there a lot, I have never seen an accident on any of the roads/motorways in all the 30 odd years I’ve been going there. Drivers in Oz have no idea about driving safely, you can be just as dangerous driving at 60 as you can driving at 160 if you don’t know what you are doing (or don’t care). A lot of Oz drivers are drongos and dropkicks who should never be allowed on the roads, they don’t drive for the conditions they encounter – blaming the roads for ‘accidents’ is a cop out..

Clown Killer8:58 pm 11 Mar 10

Love your work Marty

MartyMcFly4:08 pm 11 Mar 10

195km/h is pretty weak really..
Sorry I dont mean to blow my own bugle here but we managed that in my VK Commodore with 202 and 5 mates in the car…. he should be fined too for being too soft.

Aeek9:30 pm 10 Mar 10

On the autobahns drivers are expecting ultra-fast cars to be overtaking. Not so here.

In a previous incident, Howard’s mate was busted doing 200kmh on the Hume in a Bentley.
I understand he was reported by truck drivers. My guess is he was passing them at his 200 cruise speed, and that if he’d been slowing down to 120 to pass they wouldn’t have bothered.

Slow down to overtake.

Very Busy12:14 pm 10 Mar 10

dvaey, re #45

NO – the northbound entrance slip lanes at both of these points to the parkway are 500m long and the southbound ones are 750m long, not 1km as you incorrectly stated.

You’re not on the same page!!! The point here is that a fixed signpost of 110kmh for wet weather has meant that drivers are still attempting to do 110kmh in horrendous downpours with near zero visability. Your point regarding variable (adjustable) speed limits is a completely different issue.

Sgt.Bungers12:11 pm 10 Mar 10

dvaey said :

Firstly, theres a difference between a freeway and a plain ‘dual carriageway’. Freeways dont have traffic lights or cross traffic, and things like bicycles and animals are usually prohibited from the roadway.

That’s right, though in Australia the distinction between them is not great enough. In Aus, this simply means that pedestrians and cyclists and animals are not permitted on the road, all intersections are graded, and U turns are not permitted. Ideally we should also have proper central barriers on all freeway class roads, and incredibly stiff and severe penalties for those performing illegal u-turns. IMHO, to create a greater distinction between dual carriagways and freeways, Australia’s freeway speed limit should be raised to 130km/h in line with other countries.

Heading Northbound on the Hume Highway from Canb/Melb to Sydney, the road goes from being a dual carriagway to a freeway near Berrima. The twit in the Maserati was caught near Marulan, where the road is still dual carriageway.

dvaey said :

Not that its relevant to this case, but take a look at the Tuggeranong parkway, where is there any ‘cross traffic’? Between Sulwood Dr and Glenloch interchange, there are two points where traffic joins the road (Hindmarsh and Cotter), and both points have 1km long slip-lanes and bridges, to avoid cross-traffic you speak of.

In it’s current state, with the ACT Gov’s ordinary maintenance of the road, a 100km/h limit on the Parkway is adequate. The road should be ripped up and replaced with hot-seal finish, rather than the chip seal rubbish that is currently used. The “85km/h” dogs leg that northbound road users go through immediately before the Hindmarsh Drive interchange should also be straightened. If all this were to happen a 110km/h speed limit could be warranted along the entire stretch, however over the mere 10km of the parkway, you’d only see a 30 second time benefit, which you could easily loose when you get to the first set of lights at the end of your run. Of course in peak hour you’d be lucky to get to 110km/h over the whole length anyway.

dvaey said :

Im not sure exactly why you think its a bad thing to have slower speed limits in adverse weather conditions, but that infact DOES happen in Sydney. When variable speed limit signs were introduced in Sydney on some 80km/hr roads, they were given new limits between (from memory) 50 to 90km/hr. As the 80km/hr previous limit was for all conditions, it makes sense that in good conditions 10km/hr more is safe, but in poor conditions or if there is an accident ahead, 40km/hr under is much safer.

So to use your words.. fortunately in NSW this *HAS* happened, although it was over 10 years ago, so half the users of this website probably werent even out of high school when the laws were passed. The applicable legislative changes are published on NSW parliament website

I was aware of the variable limit signs in NSW already, there’s also a “wet weather zone” on the F3 where a reduced limit of 90km/h (down from 100km/h) applies in the wet (which, from discussions I’ve read in other forums are both widely resented, as the road was apparently built to accomodate a higher speed). The electronic variable limit signs are different… and usually controlled, or are able to be controlled in real time by humans. The UK has found that reducing speed limits via electronic signage in peak hours also results in better traffic flow, less stop start traffic on motorways.

The talk in NSW was for a blanket law to implement a system such as that found in France, where the signage is fixed and simply states XXkm/h dry, XXkm/h wet. Again, fortunately, this was just talk. 🙂

My problem with such a system is it is more unecessary nannying. Treat drivers like idiots and they’ll behave like idiots. A person should not be permitted on the road unless they are intelligent enough to slow down in bad conditions. They should not need a sign to tell them to do so.

I cannot tell you how many times I have been a passenger in a car, where the driver catches up to another and says something along the lines of “come on mate it’s (insert speed limit) here”. As it is, too many people treat the speed limit as the speed at which we must drive on that stretch of road… it’s no longer considered the maximum speed permitted in good conditions, which is actually the case. Bring in fixed lower speed limits in poor weather, I can guarantee you that in poor conditions, you’ll get more people catching up to others in torrential rain/thick fog and thinking/saying/yelling “come on, the bad weather limit is 90km/h, not 40km/h. Get a move on!” Meanwhile visibility is down to 50 metres and there’s a stopped queue or traffic/pile-up ahead.

My multi vehicle pile-up definition: A collection of horrendous drivers who, habitually, travel too fast for the conditions, and/or tailgate, and/or don’t pay proper attention to the potentially deadly task at hand, meeting in the same place at the same time.

Videos… a collection of drivers travelling too fast for conditions and causing or becoming part of a pile-up…

10 car pileup at night
Pileup Turkey after bad weather
Pileup in Italy in bad weather
Another USA? pileup

…something we’ll see a lot of here if we’re told how fast to drive in bad weather.

dvaey7:21 am 10 Mar 10

cleo said :

Well you know what they say about the men who drive these power cars!!!!!!!!

“more money than brains”? Or was my answer not quite sexist enough?

If you want to say ‘.. about the men who drive these power cars like hoons’, I agree, but why do you hate someone just because they drives an expensive car? Does an 18 year old driving an old commodore with a winnie blue rollie hanging out of his mouth more youre preferred style of driver?

Sgt.Bungers said :

I can guarantee you he would’ve thought twice about driving at racetrack speeds on a dual carriageway with cross traffic

Firstly, theres a difference between a freeway and a plain ‘dual carriageway’. Freeways dont have traffic lights or cross traffic, and things like bicycles and animals are usually prohibited from the roadway.

Sgt.Bungers said :

I’m all for raising the limit on rural dual carriagways in Australia to 120km/h… however whilst intersections are built on these roads so as to allow cross traffic, any speed higher than that will not be safe.

Not that its relevant to this case, but take a look at the Tuggeranong parkway, where is there any ‘cross traffic’? Between Sulwood Dr and Glenloch interchange, there are two points where traffic joins the road (Hindmarsh and Cotter), and both points have 1km long slip-lanes and bridges, to avoid cross-traffic you speak of.

Sgt.Bungers said :

The call for 130km/h in the dry and 110km/h in the wet as is the case in France, has not been thought through. France has a significantly higher number of fatal crashes in the wet as a result of this law… with drivers sticking to the magic numbers on the signs that relate to the poor weather conditions, when a significantly lower speed is often warranted.

There have already been calls in NSW to limit motorway and dual carriagway limits to 80km/h in wet weather… fortunately this has not happened.

Im not sure exactly why you think its a bad thing to have slower speed limits in adverse weather conditions, but that infact DOES happen in Sydney. When variable speed limit signs were introduced in Sydney on some 80km/hr roads, they were given new limits between (from memory) 50 to 90km/hr. As the 80km/hr previous limit was for all conditions, it makes sense that in good conditions 10km/hr more is safe, but in poor conditions or if there is an accident ahead, 40km/hr under is much safer.

So to use your words.. fortunately in NSW this *HAS* happened, although it was over 10 years ago, so half the users of this website probably werent even out of high school when the laws were passed. The applicable legislative changes are published on NSW parliament website

Sgt.Bungers10:42 am 09 Mar 10

I can guarantee you he would’ve thought twice about driving at racetrack speeds on a dual carriageway with cross traffic, were our laws geared to severely punish those who kill whilst driving.

Minimum 20 years prison per person killed should be mandatory for any driver who causes a fatal crash whilst driving in a manner they they should have reasonably known was particularly dangerous/reckless, and/or with a BAC of .15 or over, and/or was the subject of a police pursuit at the time.

I’m all for raising the limit on rural dual carriagways in Australia to 120km/h… however whilst intersections are built on these roads so as to allow cross traffic, any speed higher than that will not be safe. Those commenting on Europes high speed motorways… the road safety standards over there are *significantly* higher than we have here when it comes to road infrastructure, design and maintenance. You’ll find that European countries tend to have max limits of 90-120km/h on dual carriagways, so we’re already at the higher end of that spectrum. 110-130 is the norm on limited access motorways in Europe… with up to 150-160 (Austria and Italy in limited sections), and Germany being the only country to have // in an ever decreasing amount. Around half of Germany’s motorway network has speed limits now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits_by_country

The call for 130km/h in the dry and 110km/h in the wet as is the case in France, has not been thought through. France has a significantly higher number of fatal crashes in the wet as a result of this law… with drivers sticking to the magic numbers on the signs that relate to the poor weather conditions, when a significantly lower speed is often warranted. There have already been calls in NSW to limit motorway and dual carriagway limits to 80km/h in wet weather… fortunately this has not happened.

In an ideal world, we’d have no speed limits. Roads would be built so that the majority drivers could navigate all roads at a speed safe for the area without looking at their speedo, taking advantage of the 85th percentile theory.

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