A follow-up story
The Chicago Tribune printed this follow-up (bold emphasis added):
Piotr Pac knows traffic tickets. Court records show that in Cook County alone, he has been nailed for speeding, running stop signs and other violations 21 times since 2001. But on New Year's Day, he outdid himself.
In the span of 90 minutes, the Wisconsin State Patrol ticketed the Prospect Heights man three times for speeding as fast as 100 m.p.h. on Interstate Highway 90. About 90 minutes after Pac's final citation, his car was stopped again, this time with his girlfriend at the wheel after she was clocked at 108.
The tickets could cost the couple nearly $1,400 in fines, and Pac, 21, a shoe store employee, could lose his license for at least a year, authorities said.
"A year? Oh, man," Pac said, when informed of the possible penalty. "Ah, I don't care."
Such indifference irritated Maj. Dan Lonsdorf, Wisconsin's director of transportation safety.
"It's clear he believes himself to be a great driver and that he's not unsafe," Lonsdorf said. "What frustrates us is that it's not about him. It's about all the people on that road. He and his girlfriend put countless people at risk. He put our troopers at risk. It's sad that he thinks it's funny, because we definitely don't."
Pac said his girlfriend, Emilia A. Goralczyk, 18, had gone to a New Year's Eve party in Wisconsin Dells and called him for a ride home after getting in a fight with a friend.
Despite being scheduled to work that morning, Pac set off for the Dells in his 2004 Nissan Altima, going as fast as 115 m.p.h., he said.
"She called me and she was crying, you know," he said. "I don't like when she's crying. I didn't care about police. I didn't care because I had to pick her up as fast as I can."
The first trooper clocked Pac's car at 100 m.p.h., the second at 84 m.p.h. and the third at 77 m.p.h. The speed limit at each point was 65.
"Yeah, it's dangerous, but I'm a good driver," Pac said. "I've been driving since I was 9 in Poland."
On the way home, Goralczyk was driving when she was stopped just north of Madison, clocked at 108 m.p.h. That ticket carries a $491 penalty.
Goralczyk has a clean driving record, and such motorists usually can get off simply by paying the fine, said Beth Kaufman of the Illinois secretary of state's office. But Pac--whose license was suspended for nearly four months last year--could be in a tougher spot.
Three moving violations in a year--not to mention in 90 minutes--can bring a one-year license suspension in Illinois. Getting busted at an exceptionally high rate of speed can mean license revocation for at least one year, which means the driver must appeal to the secretary of state's office to get it back.
Capt. Lee McMenamin of the Wisconsin State Patrol didn't know whether three tickets in 90 minutes was a record, but he said most drivers get the message after just one.
"That usually seems to be enough," he said. "We certainly would have expected that of this motorist."
But not even three tickets, the threat of $902 in fines and the possible loss of his license slowed Pac down. Court records show that one day after Pac's trifecta, Palatine police pulled him over for going 71 m.p.h. in a 35 m.p.h. zone.
"I have a heavy foot," Pac said. "I don't feel the speed."
He swore, though, that he was going to change his ways and had started driving with the cruise control set to the speed limit. But regardless of his fate in court, his days behind the wheel might be over for a while.
"My parents took my car," he said. "Now my mother has to drive me to work."