Brainless Behind the Wheel

The first thing to say has to be that speeding down an Interstate at 118 miles per hour is probably a stupid to do. The second thing to say is that videotaping yourself while doing it is really, really stupid. But, police in Marion County, Ore., say that's what Stanislav Bakanov was caught doing Saturday. The Oregonian writes:

"When asked why he was driving so fast, Bakanov told Marion County Deputy Ryan Postlewait his explanation was going to sound stupid, but that he was making a video to post on YouTube. Bakanov then played back the video of his driving for the deputy. It contained footage of his speedometer with the needle pegged near the top of the dial. It also showed footage of Postlewait's patrol car pulling Bakanov over. Bakanov had fashioned a mount on the windshield to hold the camera while he drove."

The 118 mph referred to earlier, by the way, is what officer Postlewait says he "clocked" Bakanov's 2005 BMW M3 doing. The reference in the Oregonian story to the needle getting near "the top of the dial" is downright scary: The latest M3s have speedometers that go up to 200 mph (though we suspect the car didn't get really close to that; no car we've ever driven seemed capable of getting to its speedometer's limit). And yes, we know that lots of folks have had a camera pointed at their speedometers as they've topped 100 mph.