DRIVING WITH EXCESS SPEED

Penalties for speeding

The Penal Code punishes with a prison sentence of up to 6 months, a fine of up to 12 months, or work for the benefit of the community for up to 90 days, as well as the deprivation of the license to drive motor vehicles and mopeds for up to 4 years, to those people who are proven to have been driving their vehicle exceeding the speed limit by 60 km/h on urban roads, or by 80 km/h the speed limit on interurban roads, as these are situations that cause a serious risk of suffering a traffic accident with very important consequences given the speed at which it is being driven.

The subject responsible for this fact will only be the driver and the conduct will exceed the speed in the previously indicated limits.

The determination of the road, being important, makes it possible to establish that all those public roads located within a town will be urban, except for crossings that have not been replaced by a variant, while interurban will be all that is located outside.

Regarding speed limits, three cases are distinguished:

1. The absolute maximum speed for each type of road that is determined by a legal rule or that which appears on the road itself through the existing signs
2. The theoretical maximum speed takes into account the characteristics of the road, the category of the vehicle, and the limitations of the driver, such as being a novice driver.
3. The circumstantial maximum speed is when there are exceptional elements that can reduce the maximum allowed normally.

We must remember that the increase in the limit to around 20 km/h in overtaking that was previously allowed, in 2021 is no longer in force and is not allowed.

It is enough that these limits are exceeded for it to be presumed that a clear situation of danger is being constituted which will automatically compute, after a criminal process, the conviction of the author of the infringing conduct, without the need for any more result that, if it occurs, what it will do is aggravate the criminal consequences by increasing the penalty to the upper limits.

It could only be the case that driving at these speeds is justified by an emergency situation such as the life or health of the person driving or some of the occupants of their vehicle.

The proof that this crime has been committed will require equipment that allows the speed to be measured reliably, the radars being the ones that must have passed the appropriate and necessary checks to avoid measurement errors, which anyway is fixed at 5% for fixed radars and 7% for mobile ones.

It is also absolutely transcendent and necessary that the driver of the vehicle has been identified, otherwise, the owner will be administratively sanctioned, but it will not be possible to penalize anyone who is not known to have committed this crime.

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