2023-05-07 22:29:03
During a new surveillance and control campaign focused on speed, the DGT has once again denounced many drivers for driving at a speed higher than the permitted speed, even complaints higher than the previous campaign July 2022. If we take into account the type of road, slightly more than 57% of those reported (25,903 drivers) traveled on conventional roads, 17,621 on highways or dual carriageways and 1,696 on crossroads. In the criminal sphere, 11 of the reported drivers committed a crime against road safety and were brought to justice for exceeding the speed allowed on the road by more than 80 km/h, as stated in the Penal Code.
Therefore, and according to these figures, speed continues to be a problem in Spain, and even worldwide. In fact, the Global Plan of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 proposes an integrated safe system approach that identifies the safe use of roads as a fundamental pillar to contribute to the goal of halve the number of fatalities by the end of the decade. Among the measures recommended in relation to the safe use of roads, it stands out “enact and enforce legislation on road safety”, in particular, through the establishment of “maximum speed limits taking into account the type and function of traffic roads”. .
For its part, the framework of the European Union’s road safety policy 2021-2030: Next steps towards ‘Vision Zero’ assumes that “around a third of fatal accidents are (partly) due to excessive speed or inappropriate” and that the risk of being involved in a traffic accident increases by 12.8 times when driving at excessive speed.
In addition, he cites the study by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) which has calculated that if average speeds fell by just 1 km/h on all roads in the European Union, it is estimated that 2,200 deaths could be prevented each year on road. And it is that it has been shown that speed not only affects the risk of being involved in a traffic accident, but also that the higher the speed, the more difficult it will be to react in time to prevent the accident and the more serious the injuries produced as a result of it will be.
The rule
The Traffic and Road Safety Law and the General Traffic Regulations establish the regulations applicable to generic and specific speed limits. Failure to comply with these rules is classified as a serious or very serious infraction, sanctioned with fines of between 100 and 600 euros and the withdrawal of between 2 and 6 points, as shown in the following table:
Penalties and points for speeding
In addition, article 379 of the Penal Code stipulates that “anyone who drives a motor vehicle or moped at a speed greater than sixty kilometers per hour on urban roads or eighty kilometers per hour on interurban roads than what is legally permitted, will be punished with imprisonment from three to six months or a fine from six to twelve months or work for the benefit of the community from thirty-one to ninety days, and, in any case, deprivation of the right to drive motor vehicles and mopeds for a period of more than one and up to four years.
The Permit by Points system also contemplates the loss between 2 and 6 points for this type of infraction depending on the speeding committed.
#Speeding #crosshairs #DGT