Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

jalopnik.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 102 posts

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#41

Post by coldtea »

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #31
coldtea wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is it possible to maintain an average speed that high on public roads? It's national highways (kinda like "interstates") from Padua to Rome (something like Portland, Maine to New York), not some city roads. Unlike in the US, in some European countries like Italy and Germany you have very high or unlimited (Autobahn) speed limits, and roads good enough to maintain them.

In italy the highest speed is 130,no other road allows you to go faster than that.

In 90% of the US the highest is 70mph in perfectly fine straight-for-miles interstates. Many are less.

In Italy the autostrada legal limit is already higher at 80/130 (and supercar drivers frequently go much over it).

And of course this is the police, they can make an exception for themselves :-)

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#42

Post by ramblerman »

Hamuko wrote: post #23
dvdbloc wrote: post #8

How is it possible to maintain an average speed that high on public roads? Even if you had lights on, you’d come up on people so quickly they wouldn’t be able to get over fast enough. And surely they had to stop for fuel at least once unless they have some special gas tanks fitted? Seems difficult

> Even if you had lights on, you’d come up on people so quickly they wouldn’t be able to get over fast enough. This isn't the US. People aren't driving on the left lane just because they can.

I wouldn’t exactly hold up Italy as a paragon of courteous good driving.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#43

Post by Shalle135 »

anigbrowl wrote: post #6
innocenat wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s a pretty solid use of a supercar, although folks on Twitter have wondered why Italian officials didn’t just use a helicopter to transport the kidney. A Google Maps view of the Policlinico Universitario in Padua, the starting hospital, doesn’t seem to show a helipad or an easily accessible flat area nearby, so a Lamborghini likely made the most sense here. It's in the article.

But it's total BS, there's a giant empty lawn abut 250 feet away to the southeast, at the intersection of Via Gattamelata and Via Alvise Cornaro.

Technically depending on traffic and road conditions it’s possible to get there faster in a supercar than a heli. It may however not be the safest option.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#44

Post by chmod775 »

marmaduke wrote: post #39
chmod775 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On highways in Europe it is illegal to pass on the right, meaning that the fastest-going vehicles are supposed to be in the leftmost lane. On top of that you're supposed to switch back into the right-hand lanes if they're empty. Taken together this means that you can generally go pretty fast in the leftmost lane.

That’s the theory perhaps. The practice OTOH would disappoint.

In some countries I know it generally works, in others it maybe doesn't. I can't speak for italy.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#45

Post by koevet »

marioletto wrote: post #37
cehrlich wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a reasonable estimate. I’ve done fairly long sections on the Autobahn at 230-250km/h, and this was in a slower car (Audi A6), without a siren, and without a kidney to deliver. Even when going “just” 200-220 I often get passed by cars that are going much faster. With three lanes this is not a problem.

In Italy the speed limit is 130 kmh. I believe the Autobahn has no speed limits.

German Autobahn do have speed limits, the no speed limit stretches are limited.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#46

Post by leobakerhytch »

marioletto wrote: post #37
cehrlich wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a reasonable estimate. I’ve done fairly long sections on the Autobahn at 230-250km/h, and this was in a slower car (Audi A6), without a siren, and without a kidney to deliver. Even when going “just” 200-220 I often get passed by cars that are going much faster. With three lanes this is not a problem.

In Italy the speed limit is 130 kmh. I believe the Autobahn has no speed limits.

I can assure you 130km/h is treated as merely advisory. That is, you are advised to go at least 130.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#47

Post by LeCow »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #40
CapriciousCptl wrote: post #29

Assuming this is real, it is absolutely reckless and just not needed for kidneys. They can stay on ice for 24 hours or longer. Nobody ever needed an emergency kidney transplant, thanks to dialysis. Even if a helipad wasn’t on the hospital any clearing would do. And if the weather was too poor you use an ambulance or special transport going at a safer speed, which would still get there with time to spare.

Well, how can I say this? Welcome to Italy, my friend. The country that gave the world Leonardo and Galileo and Michelangelo, and the country where these things happen, where a police force has a few Lamborghinis (I was overtaken by one, nearby Rome, ~15 years ago) that regularly travel well above 100mph even if it's not necessary, whose cost would cover several "normal" police cars. And a country where sometimes whe…

Sir, this is the internet police. We will need to see your "full authorization documents" to prove that you're permitted to make fun of Italy.

I mean Italy is really easy to make fun of either way, you only have to take a look at the government and history to realise that.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#48

Post by kenneth »

chmod775 wrote: post #27
dvdbloc wrote: post #8

How is it possible to maintain an average speed that high on public roads? Even if you had lights on, you’d come up on people so quickly they wouldn’t be able to get over fast enough. And surely they had to stop for fuel at least once unless they have some special gas tanks fitted? Seems difficult

On highways in Europe it is illegal to pass on the right, meaning that the fastest-going vehicles are supposed to be in the leftmost lane. On top of that you're supposed to switch back into the right-hand lanes if they're empty. Taken together this means that you can generally go pretty fast in the leftmost lane.

After moving to the USA from Europe I was quite shocked at the free-for-all on American freeways. The European model is followed very well in Switzerland, and it's extremely pleasant and practical to have the ability to cleanly overtake, overall reducing traffic and allowing different vehicles to go at their optimal speed without being stuck behind the lowest common denominators (trucks, busses, etc. clogging everything up)

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#49

Post by sebow »

rhacker wrote: post #17

Definitely this was probably "fun" for the driver. But I do suspect something wasn't above board here. I know it was mentioned in the article, but the choice to not use a helicopter was... putting a lot of people at unnecessary risk. Which is pretty stupid since you're trying to save someone's life. Hopefully someone does this with a copter in the future.

It probably was more expensive to use an helicopter;Not only that but people over-estimate the "dangers" of a(n european) highway.

If you have good acoustics/light signalling you can drive pretty fast and safe with a capable car, so in the case of a lamborghini police car the only "danger" was the human factor of the driver. An error during a helicopter flight is equally if not more dangerous.People also forget this period it is very foggy across all Europe.However I agree a helicopter would have been more appropriate, but maybe some circumstances prevented that.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#50

Post by tutfbhuf »

rhacker wrote: post #17

Definitely this was probably "fun" for the driver. But I do suspect something wasn't above board here. I know it was mentioned in the article, but the choice to not use a helicopter was... putting a lot of people at unnecessary risk. Which is pretty stupid since you're trying to save someone's life. Hopefully someone does this with a copter in the future.

I wonder what would be the maximum distance where a Lamborghini is actually faster than a helicopter (assuming there's almost no traffic e.g. at night).
Post reply on HN