A man has been hit with a whopping $1.4 million speeding ticket after he was caught driving 35 mph over the speed limit.
The vast majority of us will have broken the speed limit at some point in our lives whether to want to admit it or not - but usually, it's only by a small amount that nobody bats an eye at.
Driving 35 mph over the limit is a pretty fast way to get yourself in trouble with the law, and as one man found out, the law can often come down hard.
Connor Cato was slapped with an astronomical $1.4 million ticket after being caught speeding on September 2.
Cato was candid about his actions, admitting to WSAV-TV that he was driving at a speed of 90 mph in a 55 mph zone when the Georgia State Patrol pulled him over. While he braced himself for a hefty fine, nothing could prepare him for the shock of a seven-figure charge.
After receiving the jaw-dropping citation, Cato decided to reach out to the court, suspecting that there might be a typo in the fee. However, much to his amazement, he was informed by a court official that he had two choices.
"‘$1.4 million,’ the lady told me on the phone. I said, ‘This might be a typo’ and she said, ‘No, sir, you either pay the amount on the ticket or you come to court on Dec. 21 at 1:30 p.m.,'" Cato recounted.
Legal experts were equally perplexed by the fine. Criminal defense attorney Sneh Patel weighed in on the situation, saying: “Not $1.4 million — that’s something that goes into cases that are drug trafficking, murders or aggravated assaults, something of that nature.”
Fortunately for Cato, the staggering sum was nothing more than a "placeholder" and not a real financial burden he was expected to bear.
The eye-popping $1.4 million figure was automatically generated by the e-citation software utilized by the local Recorder’s Court, reserved for what is colloquially known as "super speeders" – those caught traveling more than 35 mph over the speed limit, as confirmed by Joshua Peacock, a spokesman for Savannah's city government.
In a sigh of relief for Cato and other drivers caught in a similar predicament, a judge will ultimately determine the actual fine, and it will not exceed $1,000, plus state-mandated costs, during the mandatory court appearance.
As cited by the New York Post, Peacock explained: "We do not issue that placeholder as a threat to scare anybody into court, even if this person heard differently from somebody in our organization. The programmers who designed the software used the largest number possible because super speeder tickets are a mandatory court appearance and do not have a fine amount attached to them when issued by police."
Let this be a lesson to anyone thinking of driving too fast!
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