What Is The Most Expensive Speeding Ticket Ever Issued?

• Cars

If you've ever received a speeding ticket and thought you were in such dire straits that paying it was going to be difficult, it probably still wasn't anywhere in the ballpark of $290,000. That's such an astronomical price for a speeding ticket that it's practically unheard of, but one man did once receive such a citation. On a stretch of road near St. Gallen, Switzerland, in January 2010, one man took his red Ferrari Testarossa, one of the highest horsepower sports cars from the '80s, out to stretch its figurative legs. His foot got a little heavy and pushed the speedy car over the 50 mph (80 km/h) limit. The officer who pulled him over clocked him at 85 mph (137 km/h).

There were a few factors that landed the fine at $290,000, such as the driver's wealth. Switzerland is one of the European countries that factors in a driver's annual income to calculate the cost of a fine. This driver, Roland S., was calculated as being worth $22.7 million (he was driving a Ferrari, after all). There was also the fact that this particular driver was known as a "traffic thug" and had been caught speeding before January 2010. Had he not been a repeat offender, his fine wouldn't have been as hefty.

Places that take income into account for traffic fines

According to Go Banking Rates, the most an individual would spend on a speeding ticket in the United States could be around $1,000, which is no picnic for the average American, but it's not six figures, either. There's usually a base fine that gets increasingly more expensive, depending on how fast the driver was going over the speed limit. Then there are additional fees if it was through a sensitive area like a school zone. Florida is reworking its speeding laws, which could end up costing drivers more.

However, several countries in Europe, including Germany, France, Austria, and the Nordic countries, calculate fines based on the offender's annual income, making the fees more fair across the board. Those countries also have a hard limit on the fines. Tickets in Germany can't exceed $16 million, while Switzerland's limit is only $1 million. The incident in Switzerland isn't as common as it is in Finland, where a driver received a $190,000 ticket in 2004.

Before 2007, Switzerland had fixed costs for offenses like speeding and drunk driving. That, or drivers spent a relatively short amount of time (days) in prison. The country found that the burden ended up being on the taxpayers more than the offenders and put it to a vote in 2007. With the new law, lower-income drivers might see a night or two in jail, while the wealthier ones will end up paying tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars, AP News reported.

The benefits of switching to income-based penalties

You might be hard-pressed to get any legislature in the United States to back a bill that switches over to income-based violations, but there are definite benefits. For starters, it would be fairer across tax brackets than it currently is. Do you think somebody like Elon Musk, a man who owns seven different companies, would hesitate to pay a $1,000 or even $2,500 fine? As the University of Chicago wrote, "From the perspective of retribution, scaling fines to income would ensure that financial sanctions exact meaningful punishment on wealthy offenders." Any violation that doesn't equally punish low and higher-income citizens is only on the books to punish you for being poor, or at least it can be perceived that way, especially when failure to pay means jail time.

Income-based fines can also increase revenue for the state. And not only because the wealthy would have to pay their fair share, but because more manageable fines would ensure those in lower tax brackets would be able to pay on time and in full. Staten Island took on a day fine model — where an offender's daily income is used to calculate the fine — between the '80s and '90s, with encouraging results. Had the experiment continued, revenue could have increased by 80%.

Of course, there are also criticisms, with the biggest one accusing such a model of being just a way to secretly redistribute wealth. Others argue that one's finances should have no bearing on some crimes.