How About Socking It to the Speeders?

It’s a simple and probably obvious theory: We have the graduated income tax, so why not apply the same idea to speeding tickets? Take, for instance, a guy worth multi-millions blowing through a 55 mph zone at 80 or 85 in his brand new Mercedes sports car. A $200 fine is chump change for someone like that and would certainly not convince him to change his ways.

But how about a speeding ticket that costs the offending driver $290,000? Wow! That’s the amount the millionaire owner of a Ferrari was recently fined by a Swiss traffic court for a flagrant speeding violation.

Several other European countries have also adopted this approach … adjusting traffic fines according to a violator’s income and ability to pay.

Seems fair to me and I dare say it would cause the motoring scofflaws to think twice before endangering themselves and, more importantly, others. And isn’t that the purpose of these laws?