The Supreme Court will judge Baltar in January for driving at 215 kilometers per hour

José Manuel Baltar will sit on the Supreme Court bench on January 13 for a crime against road safety. The court has set for that day the trial against the PP senator and former president of the Ourense Provincial Council for driving at 215 kilometers per hour on a road in Zamora. The Prosecutor’s Office requests a fine of 1,800 euros for him in addition to one year of withdrawal of his driving license. At the trial, in addition to the senator himself, the civil guards who carried out the report will have to testify.

As elDiario.es revealed exclusively, a Civil Guard radar caught the then president of the Provincial Council and the PP from Ourense when he was driving his car at 215 kilometers per hour on the A-52 near the Zamorano municipality of Asturianos. The politician, today a regional senator for the PP, paid a fine but was also charged with criminal charges for having easily exceeded the speed limit of 120 kilometers per hour on that road.

Throughout the procedure Baltar has tried to avoid the bench by questioning the Civil Guard’s radar measurement and also alleging that he cannot be tried criminally if he has already paid a fine in an administrative procedure. For the moment the judges have rejected these allegations but they will be studied again during the trial that begins in January and their defense strategy will be developed with evidence such as the statement of the civil guards, the documentary on the highway inspection, the analysis of the radar and the report bulletin for excessive speed.

Judge Ana Ferrer prosecuted Baltar last June. An order in which the judge explained that her behavior, driving at almost double the maximum allowed, is one of the “statistically riskiest attitudes for safety in road traffic.” Driving at that speed, the judge also reproached, “unacceptably increases the risk of personal and material damage.”

Baltar’s case reached the Supreme Court after a first phase of processing in the ordinary courts of Zamora. His appointment as PP senator for Galicia, appointed by Alfonso Rueda’s party, caused the proceedings to be transferred to the Criminal Court due to his capacity.