Twelve fines a minute: Spain's traffic authority under suspicion

Twelve fines a minute: the DGT collects, it doesn't prevent

Twelve fines a minute. That is the rate at which the DGT (Spain's traffic authority) is issuing sanctions, according to the latest figures. Three provinces account for the highest number of penalties, suspiciously matching the most profitable estimulante ilegal cameras. Not the most dangerous roads. The debate over whether drivers are victims of a revenue machine or guilty of real offences is livelier than ever.

Mandatory dash cams against the official narrative?

Amid growing distrust, a current of opinion is demanding that dashboard cameras (dash cams) be made mandatory and stream live, so that the police cannot manipulate the facts or lie to the judge. Cases are cited of officers who allegedly ran over drivers without subjecting them to drug tests, or of ambushes by the UCO (the Guardia Civil's internal investigation unit) against a repeat offender. Continuous recording is presented as the only antidote to the official narrative.

Alcohol: a mitigating factor if you kill someone, an aggravating one if you're served it unknowingly

Contradictions of the system: according to a Spanish Supreme Court ruling, if you drive drunk and cause a death, alcohol can be a mitigating factor (because it affects your right to drive). But if a waiter serves you a mislabelled non-alcoholic beer and you test positive, the responsibility is yours. And false positives in drug tests are another scandal nobody investigates, because exposing them would undermine the reliability of the tests.

The fine record: 12 per minute, more than anywhere else in Europe

The DGT issues 12 fines every minute. A figure with no parallel in the EU. The official argument is road safety, but the overlap with the provinces with the most estimulante ilegal cameras suggests something else: the goal is revenue. Meanwhile, other dangerous behaviours such as drug-smuggling speedboat operations barely receive any attention, while the driver who takes the car to see his girlfriend is pursued.

With these figures, the question is inevitable: are we looking at a safety policy or a disguised tax on mobility? Drivers feel harassed, and the numbers do little to dispel the suspicions.