A “frustrated” teenager drove his car at more than 140mph (225km/h) on his way to the gym before crashing into a taxi.
Max Dangerfield, now 20, was driving in the early hours of 25 January 2025 on the A48 near the Cross Hands roundabout in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, when he ploughed into the back of a taxi that was taking two women home after a night out.
The taxi driver suffered broken ribs, bleeds on the brain, a punctured lung and a lacerated liver in the crash.
Dangerfield, who was uninsured, was banned from driving for 50 months at Swansea Crown Court on 13 August, and must serve 28 months detention in a young offenders institution.
He must pass an extended test before he can get a licence.
My bike is limited to 32 km/h before the engine stops providing power. Why is a car able to reach such speeds?
On the German autobahns there is no speed limit, but there is a convention between car makers that the electronic limiter is set at usually 255kph ~= 155mph. It’s quite common for real fast car owners to have the limiter removed or raised, so getting passed by a Porsche doing 300kph is a real possibility. And amusingly, the winter tyres maximum speed is 210kph. As a UK driver, we have 70mph as max, so it’s mental the first time you drive there.
Winter tyre maximum is often lower. 100mph/160kmh is common.
I regularly reach speeds of 240kmh/150mph on the Autobahn. Bog standard VW. TBH it’s boring.
For those wondering, yes it can save time.
For example, if you maintain a high average speed driving from Brussels to Berlin, roughly 750km, you can make it under 6 hours. Add a short lunch break and that means you’re able to leave Brussels in the morning and arrive in Berlin before the rush hour begins. Perhaps still do something in Berlin after you’ve arrived.
If you maintain 80mph/130kmh, in theory it’d take 6-7 hours, but you’re far more likely to get stuck in rush hour traffic. That means you potentially end up DOUBLING journey time. At which point you arrive in the dark and too tired to go to an interview or whatever. Day after sucks too.
So driving fast makes the car a viable alternative to a plane or the ever unreliable Deutsche Bahn. And if you’re not alone in the car, it’s far more environmentally friendly than the plane, even if you’re driving fast.
This is all theoretical. IME nowadays Germany’s Autobahn is 50% road works.
You know you can just unlimit your bike? Right?
One reason is that unlimited speed roads and also racetracks exist and cars generally require much more driver certification than bicycles which anyone with a pulse is allowed to ride in a lot of places. I know I did over 50 km/h a couple of times as a teenager and pulled all kinds of stupid shit because it’s not like they can take your cycling license away lol