128mph in a 45 zone. $1000 fine, 45 day suspension, 1 year probation and 30 days community service.
Too light, just right, or too heavy?
If he had been a non-celebrity, what would he have gotten?
Too light. Celebrities should be held to a higher standard. If he were a non-celebrity, he would have been sent to jail.
Far too light.
IMO, 128 in a 45 mph should be a multi YEAR suspension. 2-3 years, absolute minimum. More if its a second offense
Sure, the guy is a great driver, but there is a difference between the controlled chaos of a track and surface streets.
and the fine could be covered by the judge selling something with Busch’s autograph on it, so it isn’t all that heavy a fine either.
I’d be interested in the exact charge and the legally authorized penalties. The story says the judge decided to “throw the book” at him. The judge can’t exceed the penalties authorized by law. Whether those penalties are inadequate is a political matter. Our topic is whether he got special treatment. Does anyone know the common or maximum penalties wherever this happened? I wouldn’t pass judgement without knowing that information.
I would say the punishment is about right depending the definition of community service.
Picking up trash in the park or on the highway is community service; filming a bland, non-apologetic PSA about the dangers of speeding or showing up for a session with school kids is not.
I vaguely remember not too many years ago an incident in which a major league baseball player committed a crime and got community service as part of his punishment.
He was granted time for that service by showing up for autograph sesssions at 25 dollars a signature. Nice, getting paid to be punished.
I could be wrong, but I think most states have laws on the books that would suspend a driver’s license for 90 days for exceeding the limit by more than 30 mph.
Also, some states have $500 fines for doing 10 over in construction zones. I know, apples and oranges, but it seems far too light to me. At double the speed limit and then some, a “regular” citizen may never get his license back, I would think that is appropriate.
I mean even 128 on an interstate is ridiculous if you ask me, and deserving of multi-year, if not permanent, suspension.
Probation implies that he now has a criminal record. A criminal record is usually what happens if the arresting officer thinks that you were driving recklessly. I suspect that the penalty is about what any driver would have received in Georgia for the same offense. Of course, Busch would have had the best lawyer money can buy, and that may have had ann effect on the outcome. But he did get busted big time for a first offense. If it happens again, he is looking at jail time. Probation would be reviked for violating it’s requirements, and that would include any similar offense. I imagine that any speeding offense would put him in jail.
Football and NASCAR seem to be the most proactive at protecting their public image. NASCAR promotes itself as a family friendly venue and they are probably going to take a dim view of anyone potentially tarnishing that image. I would hope they would levy their own punishment and something that amounts to more than a slap on the wrist.
Forget celebrity, he’s supposed to be a professional driver. He knows the risks and that he’s not surrounded by other professional drivers in specially protective equipment. He put everyone else at risk by his choices. These guys tend to be on the younger side due to the nature of their “sport” and younger people make foolish choices and take foolish risks. In this case, he also has impressionable young people watching and potentially imitating…
If I read the NC statute correctly the maximum fine is 1000 dollars. Mandatory suspension is also called for but I didn’t dig deep enough to see if the 45 days is the standard or not.
The judge has leeway to send someone to jail for 60 days I think so maybe the judge or the DA wanted to stop short of that and give him probation and community service.
Short of jail time, I don’t know that the judge could have done much more. Busch is one of the half dozen reasons why I quit watching NASCAR at all and just my opinion here, but I don’t think any of that punishment will phase him one bit.
Thankfully he didn’t plow into a minivan full of kids at that speed.
I think it’s about right, hit didn’t hit anything or anyone, nobody was hurt or killed. I’ve seen people get tickets for reckless driving before who weren’t celebrities get off with considerably lesser consquences for similar infractions.
It doesn’t matter whether others get away with it or not, he was doing almost 3 times the speed limit. South Dakota bans people for life from driving in situations like that.
They should have banned his right to drive in that state for life and confiscated the car. The car could then have been auctioned, with the proceeds going toward reducing seriously dangerous drivers from the road. Think of the revenue THAT car could have added to law enforcement coffers! An LFA is astronomical as it is, with that provenance it’d bring a bundle.
Skills that enable a driver to go 200 mph on a racetrack do not transfer to the public roads. On a track all the drivers are going the same speed, they all know what they’re doing, they’re all driving the same way by the same rules, and there are no kids or pedestrians. Every time you go out on the roads you’ll see people making unpredictable and often dumb things. And if you’re traveling too fast to react in time, someone dies. Everything on a racetrack is controlled. Much on the public roads is not. No civilian should be allowed to die because Kyle Bush likes to drive fast and can afford a car that will do so.
I’m still of the opinion the punishment may be all that could be dealt out by the judge and that it may be harsh enough but that nagging community service thing is the part that bothers me.
If the judge told Busch he was going to spend 8 hours one day a week picking up trash on the highway then I’d feel a lot better about the punishment.
At 128 MPH on a public roadway no one will be able to avoid a potential accident, race driver or not.
I managed to sit through about 20 minutes of one of those Fast and Furious movies before having my fill. These guys are racing down a city street at 140 MPH and glancing down at gauges, fiddling with NOS switches, and so on? 
At 25, you’d have thought he had grown up enough to know how stupid this is. Some guys don’t have the opportunities he has to drive like a wild man on the track and get it out other ways. Makes you wonder.
OK4450, I missed your post before on that probably being the maximum the judge could hand out. I agree. It probably was. And if so, I commend the judge for doing so.
I also agree that a sentence like that won’t phase him one bit. He wn’t hurt for lack of tyransportation and he’ll still get all his “driving jollies” on the track. And the fine…he probably had more than that in his change pocket.