Monday 20 July 2009

Best news story ever?

This has to be close to my favourite news story ever.
A DRIVER has been clocked speeding at 200km/h while using his mobile phone - but that's not all he did.
For those who still live in the 20th century 200km/h is 120mph. And what else could he have done? Mooned the speed camera? Given the cops the two finger salute? Sung Nessun Dorma off key? The possibilities are endless...
When the police caught up with the Queensland driver, they found that none of his four passengers was wearing a seat belt.
That is mind boggling. No seatbelts? If you're going to punt down the road at high speed and you happen to have an accident then the wearing of seatbelts might be somewhat academic but if it were me then I'd be buckled up just to have a fighting chance.

So what manner of vehicle did the police pull over? There were four passengers so it was probably some kind of high powered sedan. Right?
A NSW police highway patrol first spotted the 28-year-old’s minivan swerve across the southbound carriageway of the Hume Highway, north west of Canberra.
Minivan?

I'm surprised they could get it up to such a speed. What sort of minivan was it?

A Kia Carnival, apparently.



Seems just the vehicle to be hooning around in. Got to be a chick magnet. Must have some redeeming feature, then, such as quality?
In the 2007 reliability report published by TÜV, 1st generation (1999-2005) of Kia Carnival placed 113th out of 113 in the 2 to 3-year-old cars category, with a defect rate of 25.1%.In the 2008 TÜV report, 1st generation (1999-2005) of Kia Carnival placed 116th out of 116 in the same category, with a defect rate of 19.70%, and also placed 111th out of 111 in the 4 to 5-year-old cars category, with a defect rate of 27.60%.
Oh. Read on.
The driver was initially clocked at 179km/h by a stationary speed gun but accelerated when the police gave chase.
What sort of person, driving a Korean POS with four passengers,
accelerates when a police car chases him? That is completely lunatic. What was he thinking?
“Police immediately began to follow the car along the highway,” a police statement said.

“A further speed check showed the car reached 198km/h.
And the coup de grace...
“As they followed the car the driver swerved between lanes while talking on a mobile phone.”
Classic stuff. How many drugs had he taken?
The driver, from Urangan, in Queensland's South Burnett region, will appear at Gundagai court on September 7 charged with speeding and other driving offences.
Gundagai is famous for its dog on the tuckerbox...



...the driver should probably visit the tourist attraction before heading to court. He might not be able to see it for quite a few months afterwards.

(Nothing Follows)

2 comments:

Myrddin Seren said...

Jeez Jack

You're correct about the mind boggling nature of this one.

Our 5+ years old Carnival clunks and rattles so much I am nervous driving the 'bus' at 60 kph around the 'burbs.

160 kph+ in one of these and fully loaded ? It's a miracle the tyres were even touching the road ??

How people can hit the freeways with any old heap of junk and not notice they are a millisecond from destruction with that humming noise - the angels singing "Nearer My God to Thee" is beyond me !

Stevo said...

"My Mabel waits for me underneath the bright blue sky,
Where the dog sits on the tuckerbox, five miles from Gundagai"

It aint five miles anymore. And I wouldn't suggest anyone speeding near Gundagai, it's always been a police trap. Maybe five miles is a clue when to slow down.

Now about the Kia. I remember seeing the same model at Kirrawee on the Princes Hwy about 2 years ago, with "lemon" painted on the silver duco. And a few other words. I assume the owner was a tad angry. An interesting advertisement.

Now for the claim going 200kmh, that's pretty scary. In know I've tested every car of mine's top speed until the last two models. But that wasn't in a Kia. Hmmm ...