We can all remember in 2009 when the then Manchester United star Christiano Ronaldo crashed his Ferrari in a tunnel near Manchester airport. Months later Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner was left ‘badly shaken’ after he managed to mangle his £120,000 Aston Martin around a tree. Although the numbers of professional footballers who, with more money than sense, just shrug off crashing their six figure luxury cars seem to be escalating every year, it is not just wayward young footballers who are guilty of such senseless acts. Earlier this year troubled Hollywood actor Mel Gibson lost control of his 2008 Maserati Quattroporte and crashed into a hillside in Malibu Canyon.

One obvious remark can be made about these endless cases of lucky escapes involving high speed luxury car crashes – celebrities and ‘super cars’ do not match. Given this justifiable conclusion, it was hardly surprising when Josef Tesarik, from the Police Presidium, announced that luxury car drivers committed more motoring offences than those driving cheaper cars.

A study revealed that out of 65,000 road offences, the number of offences performed by drivers of luxury, fast cars were 5.5 times higher than those driving more ‘standard’ and slower vehicles. Almost predictably the worse offenders were Audis, BMWs, Mercedes, Volvos and Subarus, whilst the least guilty were drivers of Skodas, VAZs, Dacias, Daewoos and Wartburgs.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that those who are in control of exotic and high performance cars, which are capable of going 0-60 in 3.7 seconds, are going to be more inclined to drive faster than drivers behind the wheels of Skodas and Daewoos.

Commenting on how to avoid potential clashes with luxury cars, Josef Tesarik reasonably concluded:

“People should not compete with luxury car drivers. They should better get out of their way”.

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