Press release from Petter Solberg regarding speeding incident:
“I had an incident in connection with the service Friday pm which delayed my departure from the service station. I was of course eager to arrive at the next start in time, hence I drove too fast and was caught in a police speed check. The police clocked me at a speed of 112km/hour whereas the speedlimit was 80 km/hour.
“I was stopped by the police officer and immediately declared myself guilty as charged which meant that the police withdrew my drivers licence. However I, like everyone else, had the right to drive a car for 48 hours after the drivers licence was withdrawn. I was therefore allowed to keep on driving until 14.00 hours on the Sunday but not
thereafter. Therefore I and my co-driver Chris Patterson changed place in the car.
“After my drivers licence was taken until Sunday 2 pm my co-workers tried to get an exemption so that I could drive the last stage as well but this did not work.
“I have admitted my fault and will pay the fines. As with all foreign citizens I will be prohibited from driving in Sweden, but only in Sweden, for one to two months. So there are no worries, my dedication to the continued WRC will remain in full force.”
– Credit: PSWRT.
The cops could have used their discretion & given a warning. They themselves break the very laws they enforce…when it suits them. We must respect the law but its not something that’s written in stone.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kimish, Saif Sultan, BILLIOT Jérémie, Rally News – RSL, MeeganRallyVideos and others. MeeganRallyVideos said: Petter Solberg speaks out speeding incident in Sweden: http://t.co/B4vYiKQ […]
Unfortunately, if the police officer had let him go, there would have been people screaming about preferential treatment. I get both sides, but agree the officer should have let him go.
I applaud Petter for his acceptance of the issue. Two months isn’t a lot of time, and the ban is only in Sweden.