Two weeks ago we reported on the new traffic laws in place in Spain. Today, we thought we would recap on some of the more peculiar traffic fines and stories to hit the news…
The most odd traffic fines issued in Spain include the following:
The Galician, Javier Raposa, on Good Friday this year turned his head by 45 degrees and was fined 100 €, or 50 for fast payment. He had been caught by a mobile local police radar in Poio, Pontevedra, where reports say that on 18 April a dozen drivers were fined for turning their heads.
A worker in a hotel in Santiago was fined 80 € a few days ago when his ‘L’ sign fell of the back window.
One of the most controversial cases in Spain was when a lawyer from the Canary Islands, Tomás Valdivieso, was fined in 2003 by the Guardia Civil for scratching his ear. He was stopped on the A-6 in Madrid when two agents flagged him down and accused him of using his mobile phone, something which he strenuously denied, and in a flash of intelligence he showed the police the last call on his phone was the day before. Despite that a fine arrived with sanction described as ‘holding the ear with the right hand in a permanent way, with only one hand on the steering wheel’. The fine was overturned a year later.
Be careful: Putting any sort of decoration, drawing, or advertising on your number plate will get an 80 € fine, and for pedestrians who cross the road very slowly without reason, even on a zebra crossing, another 80 € can be charged.
But, to be fair to the Spanish police, they do have to put up with some strange drivers. In April, a motorcyclist stopped on the busy M30 motorway in Madrid to look for his dentures. It seems that a sneeze was the reason for the loss. Police were soon on the scene and asked the middle aged South American man to go on his way for his own safety and that of the other drivers. It was a particularly dangerous position as the man had stopped next to the central reservation. The toothless driver obeyed the police but left his dentures behind. Shortly after, the 112 emergency service received a call reporting that at the same place on the motorway a motorbike had stopped, but when a police patrol car approached he drove off. Maybe he found the teeth?
Source: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news-spain/oddities2/A_motorcyclist_stopped_on_the_busy_M30_motorway_in_Madrid_to_look_for_his_dentures.shtml and http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news-spain/oddities2/The_most_peculiar_traffic_fines_issued_in_Spain.shtml