Accused 147 mph speeder gets day in court

The Scottsdale speeding case that caught the attention of both car experts and photo enforcement critics moves into gear this week.

Goodyear resident Lawrence Pargo, 26, pleaded not guilty following his May 21 drive on Loop 101 that city officials said reached speeds up to 147 mph.

Some car enthusiasts doubted the accuracy of Scottsdale’s freeway photo enforcement program, saying Pargo’s rented 2006 Hyundai Sonata likely couldn’t go that fast.

Pargo, who was charged with four counts of speeding, reckless driving and endangerment, is scheduled to appear in Scottsdale City Court at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday for a trial date to be set. He was caught four times by the freeway camera system, officials said, at the speeds of 102, 105, 128 and 147 mph between 5:47 a.m. and 6:20 a.m.

Pargo’s attorney, Laura Lehan of Phoenix, entered the not guilty plea on his behalf at his arraignment in June. Pargo, a house master for the developmentally disabled, told police he was leaving his girlfriend’s house that morning and was running late to work.

He said he noticed that his gas tank was empty and that he had passed a gas station. He exited Loop 101, went north again before he gassed up and went south on the freeway again, a police report states.

Nothing has changed since then, and no new information has been added to Pargo’s case file, court staff said.

Pargo and Lehan haven’t returned several phone calls seeking comment.

Scottsdale and its photo enforcement vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems, maintain the speed sensors embedded along an eight-mile stretch of Loop 101 are accurate. But the idea of an apparently unmodified Hyundai Sonata rented from Avis reaching the reported speeds seems farfetched to some experts.

“It could be, possibly, that the city’s speed radar equipment malfunctioned,” Steve Spence, the managing editor of Car and Driver magazine, recently told the Tribune. “When we test-drove the Sonata, our driver got it up to 137 mph — and that’s as fast as it would go. We don’t believe the Hyundai Sonata can go 147 mph.”

A federally regulated speed limiter would limit the car to 137 mph, according to the Hyundai Sonata Web site.

Certified Hyundai technicians also have doubted whether the South Koreanbuilt car can reach that speed, and performance car enthusiasts said that 122 mph would be “pushing it.”

Dave Baras, a spokesman for Avis Car Rental headquartered in New Jersey, said that the company doesn’t alter its cars and that Pargo has been placed on a “no rent” list, meaning he can’t rent another Avis car.

If found guilty, Pargo could receive 12 points on his driver’s license. It takes eight points to suspend a driver’s license. The average cost of a speeding ticket on Loop 101 is $157, but Pargo could have to pay $200 or more for each ticket and face fines and possible jail time, a city court clerk said.