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Did you already get a ticket for speeding? How much did you have to pay? 50 to 100 bucks?
Any ticket is a bummer, hurts the budget and is definitely an unnecessary expense. But be humble, there are drivers out there that keel over when they find the ticket invoice in their mail.
Anything below $1000 may be a punishment, but there are fines out there that bourder on torture. But see for yourself...
To begin with, we are talking about the hypothetical possibility of actually attaining this level of fee. But yes, legislation in some US states lets fines for speeds above the legal limit spiral to up to $2500. Besides that, the driver in question may even get jail time, if his driving is regarded reckless by the court in many of the federal states.
The Scandinavians are specialists in galactic speeding fines. Norway is no exception and slashes 10% of your annual budget if you get caught on a velocity spree. Besides that, any speeding crime considered excessive will also be punished with at least 18 days behind bars, social services or the withdrawal of the license for up to three years.
While the previous fines were purely hypothetical, this one is the cruel truth: A Porsche 911 driver in the UK was driving at 172 mph on a country road when clocked by the police. His ticket was doubled from $4000 to $8000 for excessive speed. The final ruling then resulted in a payment of $1250 and a 10 weeks jail term. Just as a note: normal speeding tickets in the UK are about a modest $100.
From the UK we move on to another Commonwealth member, that has a significantly more severe policy on speedsters. Canadian authorities have fined a driver rushing past the speed camera a seemingly painful $8,500. But with a maximum ceiling for fines set at $25,000, this ruling looks rather generous.
Less lucky was a motorcyclist in the Canadian state of Alberta that was clocked at 164 mph and was administered a less generous $12,000 ticket by the court. However, he was able to retain his license at least.
Entering the top 5 of highest speeding tickets of all time means entering Finnish-only territory. No country in the world cracks down on speed criminals as the Fins do, and as you will see in the follow-up to this one, the $15,400 ticket Antti Rytsola caught for dashing about in his Lamborghini, is still a mild sentence.
Less lucky was Finnish hockey player Teemu Selanne who was fined $40,200 for excessive speeding in 2000. How these galactic sums come about you wonder? The Finnish system is based on the driver's income, meaning that even relatively little infringements of the law may result in exorbitantly high fees.
Another casualty of the income-based Finnish ticketing-system was Jaakko Rytsola, brother of Antti Rytsola, who received a bill of $74,600 after speeding too fast in his Lamborghini. The two brothers had made millions in the internet business and correspondingly high were the costs for their love of speed.
In 2000, Nokia vice president Anssi Vanjoki was caught by police driving his Harley-Davidson at illegally high speed through Helsinki. Based on his elevated income, the court fined him $103,000. However, the manager wasn't an easy prey and filed for appeal which eventually resulted in a reduction of the fine to $5,245.
The highest speeding ticket recorded to this date, at breathtaking $200,000, was administered by the notorious Finnish officials to the 27-year old Jussi Salonoja who was unlucky enough to have an account balance of $11.5 million at that point. The fee was based on the relative income, not the relative excess speed. With 50 mph in a 25 mph zone it would have made for a rather humble amount in any other country.