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6/22/2012
RCMP and sheriffs have been seeing some jaw dropping, dangerous driving since the summer started.
On Thursday, a motorcycle was stopped on highway 63 north of Fort McMurray, clocked going 279 kilometers an hour.
"We get speeds consistently around 140 or 160" said Superintendent Howard Eaton of RCMP "K" Division, "But when you get up over 200 that's pretty rare. There'd be nothing left of you if you had an accident on a motorcycle going 200-k, and if you'd hit a car you'd cut it in half, you'd cut the car in half. That's almost bullet speed."
Superintendent James Stiles with Alberta Sheriffs says the 279 surpassed the motorcycle speed set by a St Albert man on the Anthony Henday at the beginning of May when he clocked 265 km/h. In both cases fresh roadway proved irresistible.
"You just think, just a momentary inattention, something goes wrong either mechanically with that bike, they hit a pot hole a rut in the road, that person's dead, that's all there is to it. And lucky if that is the only person that dies because our roadways have others on it."
That's not all. A 26 year old Stony Plain man was charged with impaired and reckless driving. His vehicle was seized after being clocked at 182 k on highway 16-A. His blood alcohol registered at .22, almost three times the legal limit. (sj, jk)
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