A foreign driver was caught going over 226 km per hour on the A3 near Cluj. That is like, more than twice the speed limit. (Reports the Monitorul de Cluj and a slew of other papers).
He was 27 years old, but we do not know what country the expat was from. Not that it matters, but if he competed on behalf of his country on the racetrack instead of the roads, perhaps his fellow countrymen wouldn’t be so embarrassed.
Why is the nationality suddenly a secret? If he were from Holland or Austria, all the papers would normally be jumping on his nationality. If he were from Hungary, at least Jurnalul and Făclia would probably mention that.
Until very recently, Romanian newspapers normally reported on the nationality of foreign criminals, wherever they are from. Recently, an Israeli was caught in a traffic violation, his nationality was shared by Hotnews but not his name, and Americans and Ukrainians are also named by nationality alone.
Jurnalul doesn’t even mention that the driver was a foreigner. And CNN seems to own the Jurnalul at the moment, so perhaps they are hiding something. Could it be a CNN employee? Or a celebrity with links to Time Warner? Well, Digi news also leaves out the fact that the driver was an expat. (So maybe they just found their story from Jurnalul or vice versa).
My guess is that the driver is an engineer or a Nato employee. Who else could afford a car that goes that fast but wouldn’t have the sense to just drive it on a racecourse?
And why do the pictures seem to show a boring, average vehicle rather than a sports car? Yes, it was either an engineer who altered the engine of his mini to turn it into a street machine, or perhaps a stock photo.
However, it should be noted that seven other drivers were also breaking the speed limit by at least 50 km an hour around the same time. Since no foreign identity is mentioned with those, one can assume these other drivers were all Romanians.
Therefore, it is possible that the fastest driver was indeed an Austrian. Perhaps the newspapers are embarrassed to admit that the drag race was won by someone who is linked to the Austrian government.
There is another possibility, however. There could be another driver who went even faster that the police did not detect. Maybe the expat came second to this ghost rider.
So, was the expat involved in some kind of illegal road race? And if so, did he win?
What was his prize? Well, they seem to have confiscated his license and fined him two thousand nine hundred lei. If he can lose his license that quickly, our guess is that he has a Romanian license, and is therefore a long term resident of Cluj. The photo also seems to indicate a Romanian plate.
Consolation prizes for other drivers who did not go quite as fast also included losing their licenses and getting fined.
Break the traffic laws can have its consequences, whatever your nationality.