I just love speeding at night

July 08, 2005

From Martin Penner in Rome
(But minister, aren't you in charge of slowing drivers down?)



ITALY’S Transport Minister has provoked dismay and some hilarity by admitting that he loves driving through the night at almost 100mph — well over the national speed limit.
Pietro Lunardi has spent much of his four years in office encouraging Italians to drive responsibly in an attempt to curb the country’s notoriously high annual death toll from road accidents.



He dropped his bombshell at the end of a press conference about measures to reduce congestion this summer.

In off-the-cuff remarks, Signor Lunardi said he hoped that many Italians would adopt his own strategy for avoiding traffic. “Personally I like travelling at night. Whenever I can, I take my car and drive alone.”

Asked by a reporter if he ever drove at 150 km/h (94mph), a smiling Signor Lunardi replied: “Yes, even faster.” The speed limit on Italian motorways is 130 km/h (81.5mph).

A few hours later, after a negative reaction and the failure of any of his government colleagues to defend him, Signor Lunardi issued a statement saying that he had been joking. “It is my habit to respect speed limits scrupulously, not just because the rules of the road impose it but also because I care deeply about my safety and that of other motorists.”

But not everyone was convinced by this. “His clarification seemed so bureaucratic, so virtuous and virginal, that it only provoked more smiles,” said Corriere della Sera.

The doubts, as commentators noted, were hard to avoid given that, in 2003, Signor Lunardi campaigned to have the national speed limit raised to 150km/h on certain stretches of motorway.

“Speed causes fewer accidents than distraction. If you drive fast you remain alert, you don’t doze off,” he said at the time. That idea was eventually shelved.

Despite his alleged love of speed, Signor Lunardi is credited with having a positive impact on the way Italians drive. He introduced a points-based licence system with which motorists can be more effectively punished for dangerous misdemeanours.

Drivers start with 20 points and they lose them for offences such as going through red lights, overtaking on bends and failing to wear seat belts.

Under the system, people caught driving at up to 40km/h over the speed limit, lose 2 points. Any higher and 10 points are deducted.

Amid the polemics over his “night-time speeding” admission, Signor Lunardi said the new licence system, in effect since 2003, had already saved 2,000 lives. But politicians in the centre-left Opposition were unimpressed. They called for his immediate resignation — “at 150km/h” a Green MP said — and for his licence to be withdrawn.

Walter Tocci, an MP for the Democratic Left, called Signor Lunardi’s remarks “extremely serious”.

He added: “We hope that motorists take the minister’s words as a dangerous bit of showing off and not as an invitation to break the law.”

Ermete Realacci, of the Margherita party, said: “We knew he liked to put his foot down, but we didn’t expect this. For ordinary Italians it sound like a smack in the face: we have to respect the rules and he can go at 150 or more.”