Most of us are guilty of the hypnotic pleasure of excessive speed. You know it, we know, everyone knows it. Well, maybe not the church lady, but that’s another story. This story is about a teenager who decided to throw caution to the wind in Pittsfield, Maine, on Interstate 95.
The problem wasn’t just that he was speeding, it’s that 18-year-old Tyler Barrows, of Manchester, Maine, was more than doubling the posted speed limit of 70 mph. He was tracked on radar traveling at 146 mph – in a 2004 Dodge Neon.
When State Trooper, Lt. Bruce Scott, got the call of a speeding driver on September 28, he was at mile marker 150. He was informed that a blue sports car was traveling at a very high rate of speed heading north at mile marker 135. That call came about three minutes after the speeder went past that mile marker.
Using non-common core math, it would take just under 13 minutes for a car to reach Lt. Scott at the 70 mph speed limit, but about two minutes later he observed the blue Dodge Neon speeding past him. Again, using non-common core math, it took the speeder just a hair over six minutes to travel 15 miles.
The article on Boston.com doesn’t state whether there was any type of pursuit, just that Lt. Scott used his radar to track the car and stopped Barrows and promptly arrested him. He was summonsed for criminal speed, failure to provide proof of insurance, and failure to provide proof of inspection.
On the MaineStatePolice Instragram page, Lt. Scott, who heads up the Traffic Safety Division, had stated that “in his entire career in law enforcement, he had never clocked someone traveling at such a high rate of speed.”
According to sources, the car was being listed for sale on Craigslist as the fastest car in Maine, but that posting appears to have been removed by its author. Another posting we found listed a “buyer beware” warning that the car had been “beat on beyond belief,” implying it is not worth the $7,000 asking price. We don’t doubt that assessment one bit.
This is the part where we tell you that we had to walk uphill to school, both directions in waist-deep snow. We know that people tend to drive fast occasionally and exceed the speed limit, but this act was just plain dumb. Forget that he didn’t have insurance, at this rate of speed with a young, inexperienced driver, someone could have been seriously injured, or killed. There are tracks, and maybe they aren’t exactly in your back yard, but if you have the need for speed, take it to the track and not on a public roadway. Be safe, gearheads… holidays are approaching faster than a speeding Neon.