A WANGARATTA father, 44, told police he drove at almost 200km/h at Springhurst on Saturday with his wife and three children in the car because he wanted to give his Ford a “clean out”.
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But police said if something had gone wrong at that speed and a crash occurred, it would not have been a matter of whether someone had been killed but how many fatalities there would have been.
The father had been driving from his Wangaratta home to Albury-Wodonga in the Ford G6 turbo sedan on Saturday about 10.15am with his wife and their three teenage boys.
The driver swept past Wodonga highway patrol Leading Sen-Constable Glen Allerdice, allegedly travelling at 191km/h on Gayfer Road at Springhurst.
The single-lane two-way road, with a speed limit of 100km/h, runs parallel to the Hume Freeway.
Sen-Constable Allerdice was monitoring traffic on the freeway at the time.
“He heard him before he saw him,” senior traffic officer Sen-Sgt Cameron Roberts said.
Sen-Sgt Roberts said the six-cylinder vehicle, fitted with a turbo, roared at speed, alerting Sen-Constable Allerdice 200 metres before it went past.
He intercepted the Wangaratta driver’s vehicle on the freeway after the car had slowed down at the end of Gayfer Road to go back onto the freeway.
The driver allegedly told Sen-Constable Allerdice his reason for speeding was that he was “cleaning out” his car.
Sen-Sgt Roberts said the car had been impounded on the spot, forcing the family to call a taxi to continue their journey and costing the driver a $1380 impound fee.
Police said the driver faced criminal as well as traffic-related charges that would see him summonsed to court.
Sen-Sgt Roberts said for police who had seen the horrific results of speeding, they were aware of what might happen if something went wrong when a vehicle was travelling at 191km/h.
“It’s a virtual certainty it would involve death. It would just depend on how many,” he said.
Sen-Sgt Roberts said he was tired of the insolence from drivers who were apprehended for speeding.
“People just don’t get it,” Sen-Sgt Roberts said.
“But when you see the end result, everyone is full of tears and regrets at things that were so avoidable.”