Jarod Samuel Pesch: Hopetoun man caught driving Tesla 106km/h over the speed limit fined, licence disqualified

A Hopetoun man who was caught driving at more than 100km/h over the speed limit within the small town’s 60km/h zone has been fined almost $2000 and had his drivers licence disqualified. Jarod Samuel Pesch, 25, appeared in Albany Magistrates Court on Thursday on a charge of reckless driving exceeding the speed limit by 45km/h or more on a length of road. He pleaded guilty to the single charge, and his defence lawyer Andrew Williams told the court his client wanted it to be dealt with during his first appearance. Police prosecutor Sgt. Warrick Walker said Pesch was detected by a police radar driving at 166km/h along Hamersley Drive in Hopetoun on January 14, a road with a speed limit of 60km/h. After police took the speed reading, they stopped Pesch and spoke to him, and his Tesla electric car was impounded. Sgt. Walker said Pesch’s decision to travel at such a high speed was certainly a “rash” one. Mr Williams said Pesch had thought he was in an 80km/h speed zone instead of 60km/h, but said he accepted he was still driving much too fast. He told the court the Tesla car Pesch had been driving was a high performance electric vehicle, which could accelerate to high speeds very quickly, and also noted that the vehicle’s advanced safety features may have provided Pesch with a false sense of security when he made the decision to step on the accelerator. Magistrate Rosemarie Myers said Pesch’s speed of 166km/h was an “extremely high” reading, and also noted that even if Pesch had been in an 80km/h zone as he claimed he thought he was, he still would have been driving at more than double the speed limit. Mr Williams applied for a spent conviction on his client’s behalf, but Ms Myers said due to the “extraordinary speed” he was driving at, she was not comfortable granting one. Pesch was fined $1900 and had his driver’s licence disqualified for six months, the minimum penalty for the offence.