Motorcyclist jailed after speeding 117 mph near downtown Beaufort, police say
A 27-year-old Beaufort man started out his new year with a trip to jail — for speeding 117 mph in a 40-mph zone near the Beaufort Memorial Hospital — according to a Beaufort Police Department’s Facebook post.
The man, police said, was driving a black 2017 Yamaha FZ1000 motorcycle along Ribaut Road around 9:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day when an officer’s radar clocked the man going almost 80 miles over the speed limit. The area is one where officers routinely monitor speed, and motorists have been ticketed for traveling only a few mph over the posted limit.
When pulled over, the man told the officer he’d owned the motorcycle for only a couple of months and “was still getting used to it,” the post said. He was driving on a motorcycle beginner permit, which he’s had for about five months.
Subsequently, the man was charged with reckless driving “due to the risk to the public by (his) excessive speed in the area of the hospital and nearby residences,” the post said. The charge is a misdemeanor crime, and The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette newspapers do not typically name individuals facing misdemeanors unless they are in a position of authority or public trust.
He was booked into the Beaufort County Detention Center just before 10 a.m. Wednesday and released that afternoon on a $440 personal recognizance bond.
The department’s Facebook post had more than 100 reactions, 150 comments, and 70 shares within 24 hours.
One commenter noted wryly, “A better lie would have been telling the officer that he thought his (speedometer) was in kph... But still no excuse for this.”
Another wrote: “I DON’T play with (Ribaut) Road. When they say 35. They DON’T mean 36. I do 34.”
