A 38-year-old man recently had to wave goodbye to his driving license and a Bugatti Chiron he claims he doesn't own when police pulled him over in a 50 zone.
Police have revoked a driver's license and seized a Bugatti after the driver was measured to be driving significantly over the speed limit in a 50 km/h zone.
The 38-year-old driver of the car, a Bugatti Chiron, was speeding at 123 km/h on Vienna's famous Ringstraße, a road that encircles the city center.
The incident took place near the parliament building in the Austrian capital, the newspaper Heute reported.
The driver of the powerful 1,500 horsepower car initially tried to avoid liability by claiming that he was not the owner of the vehicle. The car is also equipped with German license plates.
"The car belongs to a friend," the driver explained to the police.
The authorities responded promptly by not only confiscating the man's driving license on the spot.
The Bugatti itself, with an estimated value of around 28 million kroner, was also seized.
This action is in accordance with new legislation in Austria. The law gives police the authority to seize vehicles in cases of very high speed violations.
In fact, Austria was the first country in the world to follow Denmark's example and introduce a law on insane driving. Read more about it here .
The seized cars can then be sold at auction. The potential penalty for the driver can be extensive, as the owner risks losing the car permanently.
The fact that the driver may not be the registered owner of the car is irrelevant in both Austria and Denmark. The police will seize it anyway.
Now a court case is pending, which will determine where the Bugatti ends up.
But just like in Denmark, the money from the sale goes directly to the state treasury if a judge confiscates the car on behalf of the state.
However, the police don't always crack down on speeding. Years ago, the Bugatti factory in France had to distance itself from a customer who was driving at over 400 kilometers per hour on the Autobahn and shared the ride on YouTube.
The police initially investigated whether the rich man could be charged with anything. But because there was nothing to pursue under the traffic law, the authorities ended up dropping the case.
