Speeding fines issued incorrectly

Spain’s Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT) has been unknowingly issuing thousands of fines for traffic infractions incorrectly.

Changes made to the Road Traffic Law in May 2010 clearly state that a 4% margin of error should be applied to all data recorded from fixed speed cameras – rising to 7% for handheld cameras, and this has not been observed. Ignoring this margin has resulted in more severe fines being applied.

Similar errors have occurred in areas where the responsibility for Policing the roads has been passed to the regions - Cataluña, the Basque Country and also by several City Halls, including Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Córdoba and Málaga.

The Association of Spanish Drivers (AEA) say that since the changes to the law were implemented, as many as 100,000 fines could have been incorrectly issued.

The AEA state that anybody affected by this should appeal against the decision, but note that drivers have initially only a 20 day period to do so, whether they have paid the fine or not. A formal appeal against any case can be made within the period of a year.