DGT Denounce Over 7,000 Vehicles In One Week For Safety Breaches
Spain News
Published: 04 February 2020 10:41 CET
Updated: 04 February 2020 11:41 CET
Spain’s traffic authorities, the DGT (Dirección General de Tráfico) has denounced over 7,000 drivers for ITV and other safety breaches in just one week during their latest traffic safety campaign.
The nationwide campaign which was launched at the end of January, was set up to monitor vehicles on the country’s roads and focused primarily on ITV’s, lights and tire conditions.
During the campaign 164,602 vehicles were checked with authorities denouncing a staggering 7,278 vehicles for safety infringements. Of the 7,278 a whopping 3,574 drivers were sanctioned for not having a valid ITV inspection certificate.
The ITV test in Spain is the same as the UK’s MOT test and used to validate a vehicle's roadworthiness and determines whether the vehicle is safe enough to drive on Spanish roads.
In 2018, the average age of vehicles that were involved in traffic incidents was 13 years for cars, 9.7 years for motorcycles and 6 years for trucks.
During the seven-day campaign, a total of 105 vehicles were taken off the road and completely immobilised due to the poor condition of the vehicles which were deemed too dangerous to drive. Of the vehicles, 37 were trucks, 13 vans and 46 were cars.
Having a tyre tread of at least 1.6mm is essential, especially in the wet weather and was one of the main focal points for the DGT. During the campaign 512 drivers were found to have a tyre tread below this legal limit, often caused by misalignment, poor suspension and incorrect inflation.
Other infringements included 248 for not having the correct lighting, 137 for dirty number plates that could not be verified and 460 for not having the correct documentation in the vehicle including driving licence, log book and ITV.
