Traffic police pull 31,200 speed merchants in one week

Between Monday, April 17 and Sunday, April 23, Guardia Civil traffic police set up speed traps on secondary roads and motorways, and report that around one in 20 drivers was over the limit.

More speed merchants were caught on secondary roads – 5.6% of the total – than on motorways, where 4.9% of the total were pulled over.

In fact, four of the 31,086 were arrested and charged with a criminal offence after having exceeded the limit by 80 kilometres (50 miles) per hour.

This would normally mean 160 to 180 kilometres (100 to 113) on a secondary road where the national limit is 100km/h (63mph) or where restrictions are sometimes in place bringing the limit down to a typical 80km/h; or on a motorway, where the national limit – save for occasional restrictions – is 120 km/h (75mph), the arrested drivers would have been travelling at 200km/h (125mph).

Vigilance was higher on secondary roads, say traffic police, and this is normally the case as nearly eight in 10 crash deaths occur on these – and in the week following Easter, 55.7% of speeding fines were applied to drivers on these highways.

Police counted a total of 350,360 on B-roads, fining 19,723, and watched 230,934 on motorways, pulling over 11,263.

The DGT recalls that breaking the speed limit is considered a 'serious or very serious' offence and fines can range between €100 and €600, although in the case of the lower end of the fine scale, those paid quickly and before a set deadline are typically reduced to half.

Where the driver exceeds the speed limit by 70 km/h (44mph) on a minor road or 80km/h on a motorway, they will normally get a much larger fine and a suspended prison sentence of between three and six months.