Skip to main content

Faster

A handful of British-registered performance cars proved something of a handful for the French police recently. The five cars, including two Porsches and a Lamborghini, rocketed past an off-duty officer travelling in his own vehicle along a stretch of autoroute close to the Spanish border. Because of the high speeds involved, the French police opted to use a helicopter operating out of its base in Bayonne to track the cars. The drivers did spot the helicopter tailing them and then slowed down but were still
July 1, 2015 Read time: 1 min
A handful of British-registered performance cars proved something of a handful for the French police recently. The five cars, including two Porsches and a Lamborghini, rocketed past an off-duty officer travelling in his own vehicle along a stretch of autoroute close to the Spanish border. Because of the high speeds involved, the French police opted to use a helicopter operating out of its base in Bayonne to track the cars. The drivers did spot the helicopter tailing them and then slowed down but were still booked for speeding when they halted to pay their tolls at the next booth. The French police were less than impressed and imposed large on-the-spot fines, although they had not been able to determine the exact speed of the vehicles from the air.

Related Content

  • Weigh in motion systems aid safety, reduce costs
    February 14, 2012
    Advanced weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems can offer a quick payback time
  • To Hull and back
    July 17, 2012
    Five police cars and a police helicopter were required to halt the progress of a 13 year old boy who stole vehicle in the British city of Hull. During the pursuit the boy drove the VW people carrier at speeds of up to 178km/h and only stopped when he crashed the vehicle into three parked cars. During the pursuit the boy sped through Hull city centre and then took to the M180 motorway. While driving at high speed, the boy overtook other vehicles using the motorway's hard shoulder and finally veered off at an
  • Divine intervention?
    February 24, 2012
    An American man rammed his vehicle into a car being driven by a woman and later claimed he had done so under express instructions from God. The man crashed his pick-up truck into the woman's car while he was travelling at over 160km/h. His vehicle hit the rear of the car and both vehicles spun across a median then came to a stop along a barrier in the opposite lanes. Luckily the drivers suffered only minor injuries and police commented that this could have been a sign of divine intervention given the high s
  • Getting fried
    January 27, 2017
    An Australian man in the city of Adelaide was recently stopped by police for suspicious behaviour. The officers then found he had replaced the steering wheel of his car with a frying pan. Police were called after reports of a man loitering and when they arrived at the scene, he got into his car and drove off at speed. The police set off in pursuit and were able to stop the man, realising then that the vehicle was neither insured nor registered, while its licence plates had been changed illegally. A quick in