Statistics show that one in four motoring offences committed in Europe are by drivers who do not reside in the countries where the offence takes place, and thus goes unpunished by the difficulty in identifying the owner of the vehicle.
However, the Spanish traffic authority, the DGT is ready to put a stop to the situation, and has already prepared a draft royal decree amending the General Regulation of Vehicles and to “facilitate the exchange of information among member countries to ensure that fines reach the driver, regardless of the country where the offense was committed”.
With the new regulations, the Government will allow EU member states to access vehicle records at the Central Traffic Registry, in order to carry out the necessary investigations to identify drivers of vehicles registered in Spain, who are suspected of committing a traffic violation.
By the same virtue, the proposal will allow the Spanish authorities to access the data in other member states, so long as the reason is justifiable under the principles of law.
That said though, there will only be eight types of motoring offences covered by the exchange of information legislation, which are speeding, not wearing a seat belt, skipping a red light, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, not wearing a crash helmet, driving in a prohibited lane such as a bus lane, or using your mobile phone at the wheel.
The law is not designed to enforce minor offences such as parking violations at the moment, but there is a clause in the draft that would allow for all offences to be covered in the future.
The bilateral agreements will also be expected to enforce payment of the penalty of an offence, although an operational practice has to be established before this can be implemented across the continent.
If the DGT do become able to enforce all offenses committed on other European roads, there is also a potential for a significant increase in revenue from fines that ma otherwise be ignored. The DGT estimate that 5% of all traffic on the nation´s roads are of foreign origin, and that somewhere between 875,000 and a million speeding offenses alone are committed by foreign drivers which go unpunished. The estimated increase in revenue to Spain alone has been put at one million euro per year at least.
Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/39010/
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TEN THOUSAND TRAFFIC FINES PER DAY
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