Ontario Provincial Police say a teen driver was clocked going 308 km/h on the Queen Elizabeth Way in his dad’s car Saturday night.
“I’m pretty much speechless on this one,” OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said in a video posted to Twitter.
Schmidt said the driver, who was operating a Mercedes sedan, was stopped by an officer from the OPP Burlington detachment around 10 p.m.
“This is absolutely egregious. For anyone to be going those kind of speeds — 308 km/h? The speed limit is a hundred. There’s areas where it’s 110. When you’re going triple the speed limit, I don’t even know where to begin with that,” Schmidt said.
“Driving your dad’s car, coming back from a cruise with your buddies. Opening it up to seeing what this car is capable of doing is beyond words.”
Police initially said the driver was a 19-year-old man, but have since said he’s 18. He reportedly had a passenger in the vehicle at the time of the incident.
“As the officer got the vehicle stopped, traffic that was going by was honking in delight that this vehicle and this driver was taken off the road,” Schmidt said.
“Can you imagine having a car go by you at 308 km/h?”
Schmidt, who is a media relations officer, said when he had the photo sent to him of the speed radar, he thought the officer was joking.
He said he thought the officer was at the airport and scanned a plane.
“This is the fastest speed that I’ve ever heard of,” Schmidt said.
The driver faced an automatic seven-day driver’s licence suspension and had the vehicle impounded for seven days, Schmidt said.
He was also charged with stunt driving, and faces a criminal charge of dangerous driving.
The driver could face a fine of up to $10,000, and even prison time, Schmidt said.
Global News independently identified the driver as Noah Lauricella.
Lauricella retained lawyer Amedeo DiCarlo, the same attorney who represented several drivers in a luxury car takedown in Barrie in April 2017. DiCarlo said he questioning how fast the car was actually travelling as the C63 AMG is calibrated not to exceed 250 km/h.
“I’m still puzzled as to how a car like that can go 308 kilometers an hour,” DiCarlo said, claiming the car hasn’t been modified.
“It’s the father’s vehicle. He’s a family man. He’s not going to go, you know, chip a car and make it a race car and go to his son, ‘Here you go, go 300 kilometers an hour,’ so there’s a lot of things that need to be explored.”
DiCarlo said as of Monday, he didn’t receive any disclosure as it relates to the case.
“They’re targeting him and they’re saying they pulled him over and he has a different viewpoint,” he added.
Meanwhile, Premier Doug Ford commented on the incident during a press conference Monday.
“That was reckless,” Ford said.
“You’ve gotta throw the book at these people because they’re putting everyone’s lives in jeopardy when they do something that reckless and careless.”
Ford said he would support increasing the automatic licence suspension and car seizure period from seven days to 30.
Canada Road Safety Week is set to kick off on Tuesday. Officers throughout the country will be focusing on “high-risk” behaviours on the roads, Schmidt said.
— With files from Morganne Campbell
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