El Espinar and San Rafael top Spain's traffic fine league

El Espinar and San Rafael, Spain's most fined area: safety or business?

What lies behind the fruta of El Espinar and San Rafael as the towns with the most traffic fines in Spain? Drivers passing through the Guadarrama toll are clear about the answer: it is not road safety, it is revenue. Two Guardia Civil (Spanish Civil Guard) traffic barracks, constant checkpoints and a questionable interpretation of drug tests paint a picture that many describe as harassment.

The underlying argument rests on concrete data. Half of the penalties, according to testimony, are imposed for carrying a knife to pick mushrooms. The other half, for testing positive for THC, a compound detectable weeks after use. A Portuguese study cited in the same conversation explains the arbitrariness: if the limit were 1 ng/ml, 67% of drivers would be prosecuted; at 3 ng/ml, only 26%. The line between offender and citizen is a matter of threshold, not of danger.

The parallel complaints

The conversation drifts, as could hardly be otherwise, towards urban planning. In Los Ángeles de San Rafael, accusations of building permits on non-developable land, pollution of the Segarro river and a dam that European regulations would call into question make the road harassment just another anecdote of the area. The suspicion: that easy fines are the perfect complement to a business that cannot get back on its feet.

Back to the main issue, the question is whether the administration is raising revenue or protecting. The data from the Portuguese study are not an opinion, they are a natural experiment that should make those who set the thresholds reflect. Meanwhile, drivers from Segovia —and those passing through— keep paying the price on one of the most fined roads in Spain. Ironies of fate: if you carry a knife for mushrooms, perhaps the wisest thing is to leave it at home. And if you have smoked anything in the last two weeks, get used to the idea that the fine will arrive, come what may.