ON THE ROAD

With 10,000 Guardia Civil officers on the ground as well as Pegasus up in the air, the Easter traffic monitoring program from the DGT traffic department has been hailed a success, with the lowest number of fatalities for an Easter weekend since records began in 1959. However, some 26 people still lost their lives during the monitoring period, although this figure is also 19 less than last year. There were also 6.11% fewer trips this year, although that figure is not seen as relevant to the fatality rate. In total, there were 11,942,829 journeys made and 23 of those who lost their lives did so on interurban roads, where the DGT are trying to focus more attention on reducing speed, another 78 people were seriously injured, down from 121 last year.

Rafael Velasco Rodríguez, a lawyer from Gigón, has successfully challenged a speeding fine, in which he was clocked doing 73 kilometres per hour in a 50 zone, after he appealed on the grounds that there was no margin for error in calculating the speed in which he was travelling. Some 18 months later, the court of litigation in Gijón has ruled that his appeal is correct, and that the fines should “take into account the margin of error for both the appropriateness of the penalty to the graduation of the same”. What this means for Sr. Rodríguez is a reduction in the fine from 300 euro for travelling over 70 kmph, to just 100 euro as his speed may have been slightly below the 20 kilometre threshold. Of course he could have saved himself and the court a lot of effort by paying at the discounted rate for speed, as there is no legal precedence in Spanish law, so any future challenges would have to be represented on their individual merits.

Automotive fuel consumption in February stood at 1.85 million tonnes, representing a decrease of 12.3% over the same month of 2012; according to the statistics released this week by the petroleum group CORES. In particular, the consumption of diesel fuel fell 12.3% in February to 1.52 million tons, while petrol reached 331,000 tons, representing a decrease of 12.1% over the same month of last year. In the first two months of the year, demand for motor fuels fell by 9.2% to 3.8 million tonnes, with a drop of 8.8% for diesel and 10.9% for petrol, whilst the annual drop has been 7.1%, with a6.9% drop in diesel and a 8% in petrol use.

Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/38459/

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