NZ cops cuff armless 121km/h speed merchant

Or rather, they don't

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 29th March 2006 10:24 GMT

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An NZ man with no driving licence was slapped with a NZ$170 fine and banned from driving after cops caught him doing 121km/h on a state highway, the New Zealand Herald reports.

Nothing unusual there, you might think, but a licence wasn't the only thing the Waikato 32-year-old was lacking. As an officer approached the detained vehicle, he noticed the speed merchant was a bit short in the arm department too.

Yup, our armless menace had been driving the car "using one foot to steer and the other to operate the pedals". His excuse? He was born without arms - simple as that.

Senior Constable Brent Gray, who made the stop on State Highway 2 at Papamoa, was described as "pretty shocked" at the sight of a limbless perp at the wheel - and even more gobsmacked that the man had been "driving for years, without any issues".

Senior Sergeant for the road policing unit Deidre Lack explained that she had nothing personally against disabled drivers, but noted: "Obviously driving at a speed like that, arms or not, you're just waiting for an accident. You're asking for an accident at 120km/h, whether you've got arms or not. Look at the risk he was posing." ®

Bootnote

Readers will doubtless be marvelling at the fact that we managed to get to the end of this story without noting it would have been a lot worse for the armless perp if he been caught speeding while completely legless...oh blast.

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