While we’ve become accustomed to seeing massive speeding tickets in places like Finland, we’ve never seen one in the U.S. Not until now, at least, as one Georgia driver had the misfortune of receiving a $1,480,038.52 million ticket. But the story’s a little more complicated than that.
The driver who received this eye-popping ticket was Connor Cato who, on September 2, was caught going 90 mph (145 km/h) in a 55 mph (89 km/h) zone. Because he was traveling at more than 35 mph (56 km/h) over the speed limit, that meant that his infraction required a “super speeder” ticket.
Cato said he was aware that he would be getting a big ticket, but that he never anticipated that the figure quoted on his ticket would break seven figures. In fact, criminal defense attorney Sneh Patel told WSAV that he’d never seen anything like it.
Read: Why A Finnish Driver Was Fined $130,000 After Being Caught Speeding 20 MPH Over Limit
“At first when I was asked about this, I thought it was a clerical error. But then you told me you followed up and apparently it’s not a clerical error,” he told the outlet. “But again, I have never seen something like this, ever.”
Indeed, the city of Savannah confirmed that the number on the ticket is correct, but clarified that Cato was not actually being fined that amount. Instead, the number is a quirk of how its system works.
“The balance reflected in the e-citation is a placeholder,” a spokesperson said. “Super speeders are required to go to court. The system automatically puts in $999,999.99 as the base amount plus other costs since the only way to resolve the ticket is to appear in court.”
That means that the $1.48 million figure will not be enforced. Instead, the system puts in the largest possible amount in order to reflect the fact that the ticket’s recipient must go to court, where the real fine is determined by a judge. In this case, the fine cannot exceed $1,000 plus state mandated costs.
The system has been in place since 2017, the city said. A spokesperson claimed that the placeholder amount is not intended to scare people into attending their court date. It said that super speeder tickets do not have fine amounts associated with them when they’re issued by the police, and that it is working on adjusting the language of its system to avoid the confusion in the future.