There’s something to be said for somebody who puts his Chevrolet Camaro->ke248 to the absolute limit on a race track. That environment is contained and you’re not going to get in trouble for doing 171 mph. But on the road, or to be more specific, on a highway, the mere suggestion of doing 171 mph is absolute lunacy. Unfortunately, the driver of a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro 1SS found himself on the crosshairs of the law when he was clocked going at that exact speed along the Duluth-Two Harbors expressway, a stretch of Minnesota Highway 61.

According to the Duluth News Tribune, Hermantown Police Department Deputy Chief Shawn Padden found himself having to apprehend the egregiously careless driver upon hearing the screams coming out of the radar gun on his Dodge Charger Pursuit. Padden recounted the incident, saying that the clock started showing 171 mph before the car blew past the squad car “in a blur” just before 7 pm local time. The quick-thinking police officer immediately gave chase, going as fast as 135 mph just to get “close enough for him to see my lights on.”

Fortunately, Padden’s Charger->ke218 was up-to-task, largely thanks to the police car’s 370-horsepower, 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 engine. He managed to catch up to the driver, pull him over, and cite him for misdemeanor careless driving, a step up from the traditional misdemeanor tickets routinely handed out in “slower” incidents. Under Minnesota law, a guilty finding or plea results in a fine of up $1,000 and jail term of up to 90 days in cases involving speeds of more than 100 mph.

The incident involving the Camaro is the second time that a car was going over and above the highway’s 65-mph speed limit. In February 2016, a Nissan Sentra->ke557 as clocked doing 137 mph.

Continue after the jump to read the full story.

Why it matters

On the surface, this story might seem amusing considering that the officer who made the arrest found time to even joke about the whole incident. It is in some way, that much I’ll concede. But I’ve been waging the battle for road safety for a long time and I’m not going to stop doing it anytime soon.

171 mph on a highway? That’s not only reckless, it’s beyond stupid. Does the driver have any idea the kind of danger he poses to other commuters at that speed? Never mind the fact that he basically turned his Camaro into a weapon of sorts, but what if he figured into an accident, there will be casualties. I can guarantee it. Even Officer Padden said as much when he told reporters that any semblance of a reaction time is worthless at that speed because there is no time to reach before you hit something or worse, someone.

I don’t mind cars going 171 mph provided that it’s done in a safe and contained environment. That’s one of the reasons why race tracks were invented in the first place! If the driver really wanted to push his Camaro to its absolute limit, he should’ve done it on a track and not, of all places, a highway! It’s infuriating to think that there are still some drivers who are that reckless about their own safety, much less the safety of others. That driver should be punished to the full extent of the law to prevent him from doing something as absurdly idiotic as that ever again.

Oh, and a Camaro SS doing 171 mph on a radar gun suggests that this isn’t a standard Camaro SS. Some aftermarket has been done on that muscle car that allowed it to hit those speeds without the car experiencing any mechanical problems. If that we’re the case, that’s doubly stupid and just flat-out moronic.

I get it that I sound like a broken record here. But trust me, I’d rather be that voice instead of the one pushing people to do stupid things on the road like going 171 mph. I’m more interested in the safety of the driver, his passengers, and other commuters than I am in enjoying the thrill of going full blast in a Camaro. Like I said, if you want to do that, do it where you’re supposed to.

2016 Chevrolet Camaro

Read our full review on the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro here.