‘If you hit someone they’d be mush’

A speeding driver who was clocked by police travelling at 162kmh in an 80kmh zone was told by a Hamilton District Court magistrate that if he hit anyone while travelling at that speed he would reduce them to ‘‘mush’’.

Waikato University mechanical engineering student Salman Safar, 21, appeared before community magistrate Susan Hovell on Thursday morning, where he was left in no doubt of his standing in her eyes, after he was caught by police travelling at more than twice the posted speed limit on Wairere Drive.

‘‘Was he driving or flying?’’ Hovell asked.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Bill Cronin replied:

‘‘The concern is it’s a residential area. ‘‘It’s maniac driving.’’ By way of explanation, Safar had told the arresting officer that loud music had been playing in the car and he had been talking to his passenger, paying little attention to his speed.

Safar had been spotted accelerating his Mazda at 9.50am. Conditions at the time were dry, with light traffic, but those factors evidently held little sway with Hovell. ‘‘What were you thinking? ‘‘You were double the speed limit,’’ she said.

‘‘I don’t know how you even got away with not hitting someone at that speed.

‘‘You are even off the range as far as our fines are concerned.

‘‘If you hit someone they would be mush on the road. ‘‘What’s a bit of money?’’ She fined Safar $1200 with $130 court costs and disqualified him from driving for nine months.

The sentencing came just a day after another Hamilton District Court community magistrate hauled another speedster over the coals.

Alan John Caulfield, 59, received his dressing-down and a $1300 fine from community magistrate Kathryn Wilson on Wednesday, on a charge of dangerous driving.

A police traffic patrol caught Caulfield’s Holden on the Waikato Expressway near Horotiu driving 171kmh through heavy traffic.

The patrol car was travelling in the opposite lane and was unable to immediately catch up to Caulfield’s vehicle, however he was eventually tracked down and charged.

Caulfield’s counsel Shayne Lawry said he had not deliberately evaded the police at any stage and, at the time he was clocked doing 171kmh, had been ‘‘paying attention to the road, but not his speedo’’.

However that explanation found little favour with Wilson who told Caulfield an error of judgment would have dire consequences.

‘‘At that speed your body would disintegrate and people would have to pick bits of you off the road,’’ she said.

Wilson fined Caulfield $1300, with $130 court costs, and disqualified him from driving for nine months.