A Staten Island driver is suing over a “noise digital camera” ticket for his $315,000 Lamborghini — saying the high-quality must be dropped as a result of he didn’t modify the supercar to make it louder.
Insurance coverage dealer and self-confessed “automobile addict” Anthony Aquilino stated town goofed by issuing him an $800 noise ticket for driving his 2018 Lamborghini Huracan Performante, because the unique white sports activities automobile is completely inventory — and authorized to drive within the Massive Apple.
“The high-quality quantity is $800 for the primary offense. The second offense is $1,700 & the third offense is $2,700,” Aquilino instructed The Submit. “How can anyone afford that? Particularly if town desires to maneuver these cameras all throughout the 5 boroughs.”
Massive Apple regulation solely permits town to situation tickets to vehicles purposefully modified to extend their engine noise, the automobile proprietor contends within the lawsuit filed final week in Manhattan Supreme Court docket.
And his 2018 Lamborghini Huracan’s huge and authorized V-10 engine is simply loud by its manufacturing unit design.
The one manner for him to keep away from the fines sooner or later, his swimsuit states, could be to cease driving the two-seater supercar, “which is undoubtedly unreasonable,” his swimsuit reads.
“The one treatment could be to promote the automobile,” Aquilino stated. “How else do you struggle the high-quality?”
Since he didn’t deliberately modify his automobile to provide extra noise, he can’t legally be held accountable for any noise, he contends — and the automobile is in any other case authorized to drive on metropolis streets and passes inspection yearly.
“I really feel that if the residents are upset by noise and town desires to crack down on noise — I don’t disagree with it,” Aquilino stated. “I disagree with if a automobile is unmodified and also you need to high-quality them.
“I acquired the high-quality after I was slowing down and going up forty first Avenue,” Aquilino added. “So velocity isn’t an element on this.”
About six weeks after his ticket, Aquilino even took his prized trip to the Lamborghini dealership in Manhattan to get it recognized as having no aftermarket installations or modifications put in, he stated.
“Aquilino didn’t ‘trigger or allow’ the full sound from the Automobile to exceed the sound stage restrictions,” the swimsuit reads, “as he didn’t modify the Automobile in any manner and operated the Automobile in an extraordinary and affordable method.”
Council Member Keith Powers, who pushed an enlargement of the noise cameras citywide in a invoice he dubbed the “Cease Spreading the Noise Act,” has made previous statements that appear to assist Aquilino’s place within the swimsuit.
“We’re going after those that are probably utilizing an unlawful automobile, a modified automobile, some which are actually appearing loudly,” Powers instructed NY1 in December, 2023, simply after his regulation handed.
However on Monday, Powers instructed The Submit that the cameras will bust all noisy operators, regardless if the decibels are because of any modifications or not.
“The noise digital camera program was instituted to handle any automobile that’s disrupting the local people by violating metropolis and state legal guidelines associated to noise,” Powers stated in an announcement. “New Yorkers have a proper to a peaceable evening of sleep, and that’s what our program goals to realize.”
Town’s Division of Environmental Safety, which controls the noise-detecting cameras, didn’t reply to a request for remark. Town’s regulation division instructed The Submit they might be reviewing Aquilino’s swimsuit.
Aquilino stated he purchased his used Lamborghini in 2021 with money — and by buying and selling in a purple Porsche 911 valued at $185,000, in response to a gross sales receipt he included in his courtroom submitting.
He additionally owns a Cadillac and a Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, one of many quickest vehicles available on the market.
“I’m not dashing. I’m not driving excessively. I used to be driving down forty first Avenue at a standard charge of velocity and there’s folks strolling by they usually don’t even choose up their heads,” stated Aquilino. “So if I used to be driving that recklessly or being that noisy, they might’ve picked up their heads like: ‘what’s that noise?’ Nobody even budges.”
In response to metropolis violation knowledge aggregated by the favored web site How’s My Driving NY, Aquilino did obtain two tickets on that very same day within the West Village for blowing by means of a purple mild and dashing in a faculty zone.
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