The Popular Party keeps José Manuel Baltar as regional senator appointed by the Parliament of Galicia a month after the Supreme Court condemned the former president of the Diputación de Ourense after being hunted in April 2023 leading to more than 200 kilometers per hour by the A-52 highway, where the limit is 120, as Eldiario advanced. The sentence imposed a fine of 1,800 euros and the withdrawal of the driving license for one year.
Despite the conviction, neither the president of the Xunta and the PP of Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, nor the state leader of the party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, have requested their resignation. In January, the BNG did present a non -law proposition in the Parliament of Galicia to reprob the senator that was not approved although it did have the support of the PSDEG and Ourensana democracy. And the senator has come to insinuate that his conviction responds to a “political persecution.”
Experts point to the multiple risks of driving at that speed for both the offender and for the rest of the road users. The main one is related to the great energy generated by the movement at that speed. Jesus Monclús, Director of Prevention and Road Safety of Fundación Mapfre, explains that this energy becomes deformations both in vehicles and the obstacles with which it is impacted. “A simple calculation error can result in the total loss of car control,” he says.
Monclus remembers that the distance of braking at those high speeds is considerably greater. At 120 kilometers per hour the vehicle needs about 100 meters to stop, which is equivalent to the length of a football field. At 200, that distance increases to approximately 250 meters. And the expert points out that the probabilities of survival are drastically reduced: “even a collision with a fixed object or a vehicle stopped in the shoulder is lethal at that speed.”
The Director of Road Safety of the aforementioned Insurer explains that at speeds greater than 200 kilometers per hour the tunnel effect also intensifies drastically, reducing the driver’s ability to perceive what happens on the sides of the road. This not only decreases its margin of reaction to unforeseen events, but also “increases the feeling of false security”, since the brain tends to focus only on the farthest point of the road. Monclús points out the ability to react human has a physiological limit: “At that speed, a second distraction is equivalent to traveling more than 55 meters without control.”
David Pérez, Vice President of Stop Accidents, strongly criticizes that a person condemned by reckless driving continues to occupy his public office: “It is absurd that a political representative has violated circulation rules and has not been reproached or sanctioned properly.” Pérez highlights that these types of attitudes give a feeling of “impunity” and can negatively influence the perception of road safety.
As for the response of the Galician PP, who refused to reprob the senator for considering that leading 200 kilometers per hour is a “crime of abstract danger”, Pérez expresses his sharp disagreement. For him there is nothing “abstract” in the dangers generated by reckless driving. The Vice President of Stop Accidents recalls that his own parents were victims of an accident caused by someone circulating at 140 kilometers per hour in a limited area to 80 and that an excess of that caliber can be fatal.
Legal implications
According to the Road Safety Prosecutor’s Office, article 379.1 of the Criminal Code typifies the conduction at excessive speed as a crime when it is exceeded in more than 80 kilometers per hour the limit allowed in interurban roads. The planned sentences include fines, prison sentences and, in all cases, the withdrawal of the driving license of one to four years. However, in the case of Baltar the Supreme Court opted for impose an economic fine and the withdrawal of the driving license for a year without applying prison sentences.
The Prosecutor’s Office also clarifies that the Criminal Code does not contemplate specific disqualification sentences for public office in traffic crimes. In this case, since Baltar has not been sentenced to prison, he cannot impose any type of disqualification to exercise his position as a senator.
In the first action, the Civil Guard agents chose to deal with the case as an administrative fault because it is an infraction on a holiday. The defense argued that Baltar could not be criminally tried, since he had been administratively sanctioned for the same fact.
However, The Supreme Court rejected this thesis, explaining that the criminal procedure has preference above the administrative and that the traffic sanction was suspended until the judicial resolution. In the order of the judicial judgment, it is specified that Baltar is not sentenced to a prison sentence for not having a criminal record.
From stop accidents insist that the typification of this type of crime should be much more severe, both in terms of economic sanctions and political consequences because it is a “serious” behavior by a citizenship representative.
Politicians who have resigned for traffic infractions
In other European countries, numerous political representatives have resigned for traffic infractions. In 2012, the then Minister of Energy and Climate Change of the United Kingdom, Chris Huhne, resigned from his position after being accused of trying to avoid a fine for speeding. Huhne persuaded his wife to assume the penalty points in his driver’s license. Both were convicted and the minister left his public office.
In the state, in 2023, Asier Larrauri, newly chosen mayor of Bermeo (Euskadi) by EH Bildu, resigned from his position after suffering a traffic accident late in the morning, driving under the influence of alcohol. Larrauri recognized his mistake and in a letter sent to his party apologized to the Bermeotarras and requested his resignation so as not to damage the image of the municipality or the party.
Even so, the case of Baltar is not the first in regard to legal problems due to traffic infractions in the PP. A recent one is that of Vicente Ferrer, signed by Francisco José Gan Pampols, the new vice president for the economic recovery of the Generalitat Valenciana. Ferrer was previously sentenced to eight months without driving for a driving crime under the influence of alcohol while exercising as a deputy in Congress by the PP.
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