A TTC employee clocked riding his motorcycle at speeds in excess of 225 km/h on the Queen Elizabeth Way was slapped with a hefty fine and an admonition from a local judge this week.

“Outrageous,” Judge Fergus O’Donnell said Wednesday in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines after hearing of Etobicoke man Philip Smith’s driving conduct on May 22, 2017.

“These are just crazy speeds,” he told the 29-year-old after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving. Smith was identified in court as a TTC worker, and hopes to one day become a driver.

“The risk to you is incredibly high. You are fortunate to be standing here, and not lying in a coffin.”

Assistant Crown attorney Mark Eshuis said an Ontario Provincial Police airplane spotted Smith and two other motorcycle riders driving “at extremely high rate of speeds” in the Toronto-bound lanes of the QEW at Lincoln.

The pilot contacted an OPP officer who happened to be conducting a traffic stop along the highway.

As the officer was issuing a ticket, court was told, the three riders sped past him.

The officer attempted to catch up to the trio but the riders accelerated and drove faster in an attempt to evade police. The officer backed down and the OPP plane continued to monitor the riders.

“They were driving at excessive speeds and cutting multiple vehicles off,” Eshuis said.

When the riders entered Hamilton, they split off in separate directions.

The OPP plane continued to follow Smith as it appeared he was the lead rider in the group and he was subsequently arrested after he drove down a dead-end street in Hamilton.

O’Donnell told the defendant he not only put his own life in jeopardy, but also the lives of other motorists on the highway.

“You may think you have the reaction times of a cheetah or a gazelle but not everyone on the road shares those same skills,” the judge said, adding the defendant’s choices that day were “foolish and stupid.”

The judge imposed a $2,000 fine and an elevated victim fine surcharge of $1,500. Typically, the surcharges equate to 30 per cent of the fine.

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Smith was also prohibited from driving for 12 months.

Correction - April 13, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version to update a headline that misspelled St.Catharines.