BLACK DIAMOND , Alta — A driver clocked at 209 km/h earned a court appearance and netted a Black Diamond peace officer a record traffic stop on May 23.
The vehicle, travelling north on Highway 22 near 434 Avenue, was clocked going 109 km/h over the speed limit by a peace officer who was travelling the other direction in a 100 km/h zone. It happened at approximately 10:30 a.m.
Black Diamond peace officer Jim Berry said the driver knew how fast he was going and had no excuse.
The officer asked the driver how fast he thought he was going, and the response was “about 192 km/h,” Berry said.
The driver, a male in his early 20’s, lives in Okotoks and was the registered owner of the vehicle.
He was issued a mandatory court appearance at Turner Valley Provincial Court, Berry said, and any driving suspension or fine will be up to the judge.
There were no signs of impairment, and no other vehicles were visible on the highway at the time the driver was pulled over, Berry said, and a charge of careless driving cannot be made based only off speeding.
“At that moment in time, he’s put his own life at risk,” Berry added.
The officer said he had never seen anyone travelling at that rate of speed.
“That was a record for me. My fastest speed in 16 years was 187 km/h,” Berry said. “And that was a motorbike, this was a small car.”
Berry explained that the radar unit in his vehicle makes a sound when it locks on to a speeding vehicle, and the faster the speeding vehicle is going, the higher the pitch of the sound.
“The sound that it made, in my 16 years, I’ve never heard anything that loud before,” he said.
Berry said he wrote 16 tickets on holiday Monday. The drivers he stopped were going between 25 and 109 km/h over the speed limit, which is 100 km/h in the area.
