Thursday, July 06, 2006

El Nuevo permiso por puntos: 2

I found this graphical illustration on the El Mundo website. Although it's in Spanish only, you get the idea of the offences and penalties very easily. Brilliant graphics.

It is relevant to any driver on an EU licence, since although your licence cannot be endorsed at the time, details are sent to your licence issuing authority and will be noted when you come to renew your licence. You will still be fined and these now go up to €600 for 'very serious' offences.

2 comments:

Grumpy Goat said...

Recent research appears to indicate that yacking on a hands-free mobile phone whilst driving is as bad or worse than D&D (or DUI). Yet in Spain it's apparently considered only half as sinful.

Astonishingly, even drunk-driving is considered only half as bad as in the UK, where a mandatory disqualification is de rigeur for exceeding 35mg in breath (80mg/100ml in blood).

In the Gulf, there is zero tolerance for D&D. Suspicion of any alcohol in the driver's system will earn him 30 days in the slammer followed by a hefty fine and probable deportation. The penalty is much higher if there is an accident or - heaven forbid - an injury.

I have given up having even a single drink before driving, having got away with it for ten years. It's straight tonic for me, and boozing is limited to at home, or associated with a designated driver or a taxi.

El Casareño Inglés said...

The system here can be tougher than appears at first sight.

Although the rules say you can only lose up to eight points at a time (and therefore keep your licence), this does not apply to the muy grave (very serious) offences.

For those offences (6 points) you can have your licence taken away even for just one offence. The most serious report so far involved a driver who was stopped and was cited for 19 points in one go because they involved a number of very serious, 6 point infractions.

Spanish traffic police are particularly worried at the rising number of offences involving driving under the influence of drugs - Spain has one of the fastest growing cocaine using populations in Europe.