290km/h on a Swiss Autobahn and you’re gone

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By Anthony Crawford | August 10th, 2010

That’s how fast a 37 year-old Swedish driver was clocked at, on a Swiss autobahn, in his black SLS AMG Mercedes-Benz sports car yesterday, close to the Western Canton of Fribourg.

The irony is that Switzerland has some of the greatest driving roads in the world, but drivers beware, the maximum speed is 120km/h and you’ll need to slow to 80km/h in tunnels and 50km/h in towns or villages.

On the other hand, if your car is not capable of doing at least 80km/h on the autobahn, then you’ll have to take the back roads, as you are not permitted on the freeway.

290km/h (180 mph) is frighteningly fast on any road although, quite legal in the derestricted zones in Germany.

In Switzerland, that kind of speed can cost you more than a million Swiss francs, and you may not get your car back until the fine is paid in full, as this driver was quick to learn.

The car was travelling so fast, that a neighbouring police service had to be called in to apprehend the driver, who in this case, is considered a criminal.

That’s the problem in Switzreland, speeding offences such as this case, are not under the traffic act, but rather, under the criminal code and can incur huge fines or even jail time.

No one is sure that the driver is also the owner of the car, but if so, that person will cop a massive fine, and will be essentially means tested to gauge just how much he can afford to pay the Swiss authorities.

Switzerland – a great place to sightsee, if you’re not in a hurry.

TomJ

To be fair, he deserves everything he gets.

Jester

There are so many worse things that happen under our noses but speeding always atract everyones anger. How about selling fast food burgers and chips to people, or cigarettes – a huge number of people die from health issues caused by food, cancers caused by smoking but nobody goes and shuts all the fast food joints and cigarette makers, or pokies, or selling alcohol, destroying your mind and health, or how about bashing people in the streets and those people when caught get some community service and nothing else. For me, this kind of speed is nothing – shouldn’t even be a slap on the wrist unless he endangered other people around him, but even then if he hasn’t hurt anybody it shouldn’t be a big thing. Again, the percentage of people killed due to speed alone is nothing compared to all the other deaths and injuries caused by many other causes, and those causes are simply overlooked.

Mythfrances

I guess you are less likely to die when you are at 100km/h rather than at 290km/h. Or its just less painful in the latter, as u die quicker.
Lloyd

I totally agree with you,
why so much focus and so many police recourses are used in speed detection of motor vehicles…. Couldnt understaffed police forces better utalise there rescourses? Shouldnt catching kiddy fiddlers, rapists and murder\’s be a more productive use of their time.
Could we not train drivers to handle vehicles at high speed to get your licence?
Sorry of course silly me – rapists, murders, kiddy fiddlers, and the scum bag who mugs ole ladies dont raise millions of dollars in revenue for ther governments do they. We cant stop either people from speeding or police from using resources that could be used to catch real criminals, because if that happened govenment would start going bankrupt. how else can they fleece bucket loads of money from the public and blame them for it!! REVENUE RAISING IS ALL IT IS!

http://www.thethrillofdriving.blogspot.com MaK

Worse than OZ?

At least their roads are better….

I like what clarkson says in the episode where he goes to either Sweden or Switzerland in a Superleggera:

“The hills are alive with the sound of horsepower!”
Karl Krankschaft

He probably shouldntve been doing that speed so he sorta deserves it but if noone was around and the road was perfect and he was just testing out his new car I sorta feel sorry for him. Wouldn’t it be upsetting having that masterpiece of a car taken away from you

Jester

Exactly – completely agree.

Nobody

He’s only doing what most of us would be doing given the chance and conditions (clear road) in that car.

Only problem was that he was in the wrong country. Poor chap.
TomJ

I wouldn’t do that given the car.

High speed testing, especially were the roads and cars arnt built for it is very dangerous.

D

SLS not built for speed? You must be joking.

Moey

When will Oz get an Autobahn like the Germans have got ? I

http://facebook.com tuz

heres the simple answer.
NEVER
MK

When a billionaire decides to build one in NT, SA or WA. Then he can charge people tolls for using it.
WTF

When we elect Hitler as our prime minister

Hugh Jorgan

Obviously the 3 speed limits (50, 80 & 120) are very confusing. Maybe we could send someone from Australia over there to add 5 more speed limits and get everyone driving in the fast lane.

Omale

What are you talking about. That is what you call clarity and consistency.

Here you drive at 110 or 100 kph depending on your state, slow to anywhere between 40 and 60 in towns, and that’s not mentioning the countless changes in between.
Omale

Just realised that was tongue in cheek…

Reckless1

Just as well he didn’t do that in Aus, or someone would be dead.

Speed kills, you know.

Kieran

I don’t know… If every “k” over is a killer, wouldn’t 170 people be dead?
Baaron

Speed doesnt kill, its the sudden stopping that does

Shak

How in the hell did the Swiss police have any car fast enough to catch a a car doing 290km/h let alone an SLS?

Mythfrances

By going at 290km/h that SLS must consume a lot of petrol. So the police just called their mates in the next town and ambushed in a petrol station. Here you go

steve

it appears that its only in australia that SPEED KILLS
omg ? are our police lieing to us ? and it is safe to go over 100 without dying ?
Bob

I’m a little worried that this will be seen as an endorsement for Australia’s draconian traffic policies.

I can hear the cheers from our highly qualified State Politicians already. “See other countries book people for speeding too, its not all free love on European roads”.

But, I’ve driven in both Sweden (where the guy comes from), and Switzerland (where he was booked). The pity is the guy was only stopped because of the silly speed he was going.

Even though the speed limit is 120km/h, I was regularly overtaken by police while I was driving at 150km/h and not even glanced at. Its all just about whether your being silly.
steve

i agree bob, 290 is a silly speed on any public road, but booking people for revenue and calling it safety is also very wrong. exceeding the speed limit while over taking is actual safe driving if not abused. many years ago in vic, police had to prove in court that the speed you were doing was dangerous because there were no speed limits on open roads. but those days are gone. now is it all about control and money. soon cars will have chips that send your speed details to big brother who will deduct funds from your account all within 1 sec, you car will simple stop and park itself if you have exceeded your points or have insufficient funds. scarey but very likely.
Paul

Isn’t double the limit in Aust a criminal offence too?

Jester

Over 45km/h is a criminal offence in Oz, dangerous speed offences are criminal, not under the traffic act. Silly I know, 45km/h is nothing and they treat it like murder, but selling cigarettes is ok – guess taxes from cigarettes are great revenue for the governmnets so they let people die from cancers, but driving at speed is a big no-no, even when nobody gets hurt.

Shane

if you are going to do it then you may as well do it in style. Good luck to him i say
Yonny

290km/h. Is that all? What a lightweight.

Just joking.

With the car he had, he must be constantly tempted just to floor it. But you can’t really justify this sort of speed on a public road, if only because of the huge speed differential between a car doing 290km/h and others doing the legal max of 120km/h.
John Bird

I drive about 2500km each year in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland.
Swiss roads can be very poor compared to the rest.

Speed limits are similar to Austria and because of the altitude, snow, ice and black ice is common, lesser speed limits prevail.
Austrian drivers can apply for a special endorsement to allow them to drive above the posted speed limit. They submit to a more stringent driving test than the basic one ( basic can cost $2,500 AUD )

Our Victorian speed limits are draconian compared to countries where much higher speed limits have far less deaths per head of population…
Germany, Italy and Netherland have substantially lower fatalities because of driver education and numerous other factors, all on roads similar to ours but with hardly any distractions that can cause major accidents.

Bob

By distractions, you mean large, expensive electronic billboards warning that “Speed Kills”… when it should say “Ignore me, I’m an expensive, dangerous distraction”.

Fenno

He’s probably thinking more about the 18 wheeler in the right hand lane doing 8 and the cop hiding behind every second overpass.

Save it for the track

Over 45km/h is nit under the criminal code in NSW. Of course considering if it’s also dangerous driving depends on the time of day/night, the road and surroundings etc.
.
And it’s finally nice to see someone note that some European roads are just like ours. Many note that our driver training is poor and that is definitely the case, but we also do not pay as much to get our licenses. Lower skill level therefore requires lower limits.
.
I take it that not many have seen some of thE photos of autobahn accidents then? I particularly remember a Mercedes AMG buried under a semi on an off ramp with the speedo jammed on at 250.
.
Obviously that driver paid with their life, and a great many driver’s I saw on the autobahns are what one would classify as ‘the last of the late brakers’. They hoot up the fast lane in their uber machine, then proceed to cut across everyones bow to make their exit at times almost coming to grief and causing accidents. It’s probably because of the better training and the conditioning that happens when driving on an autobahn to look out for a 250km+ missile that could then proceed to carve everyone up just to get to the exit and be a few cars ahead on the B road or the town road…. 290 in a 120?? Would be a speed dangerous charge for sure in NSW. (280 in 110 or similar)

Yonny

“Would be a speed dangerous charge for sure in NSW”

And surely nobody would disagree. As I said in my post, the speed differential is just way too high.

I was interested in your comment about cutting across traffic to make an exit – reminds me of the time I was in one of the tunnels on the M5 driving into Sydney. Some turkey in the RIGHT-hand lane suddenly cut across the traffic in order to take a LEFT-hand turn onto the Princes Highway exit. This dork could have caused a massive accident – and very nearly did. Pity one of your mob wasn’t there to catch the idiot and book him for dangerous driving.

Bezza

Maybe he just wanted to meet the blonde.
Wayne Kerr

As a libertarian, I’m sympathising with the driver. He didn’t kill anyone, therefore he’s getting punished for a victimless crime.

Yonny

I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you, but your comment reminds me of Sideshow Bob’s comment about one of his crimes: “Convicted of a crime I didn’t even commit. Hah! Attempted murder? Now honestly, what is that? Do they give a Nobel prize for attempted chemistry? Do they?”

Gotta love the Simpsons.

MattP

He was just testing the manufacturers claims regarding top speed . . . the SLS AMG is electronically limited to 317km/h.

But a very poor idea on a public road.
glorfindel

FYI, speed limits in Switzerland are:
- 30 km/h in special zones in town
- 50 km/h in towns
- 80 km/h out of towns
- 100 km/h on “semi-highways”
- 120 km/h on highways

In highway tunnels it’s often limited to 100 (not 80).

Since our highways are mainly winding two-ways roads with lots of exits and accesses, it is quite dangerous to go over 160… and quite expensive…