The Servei Català de Trànsit (SCT) estimates the total amount of fines for foreign drivers at around 900,000 euros that were not collected because the service contracted to carry out this administrative management was contested by one of the companies that lost the public tender. Said sanctions have already prescribed.
The director of the SCT, Ramon Lamiel, contributed this figure yesterday in an appearance in the Parliament's Interior Commission, where he justified that another service could not be contracted until the challenge was resolved. Beyond these uncollected fines, Lamiel assured that the problem is resolved and that the pending sanctions since August of last year are already being collected.
Lamiel appeared at the request of the PSC, which had requested information after Catalunya Ràdio published in October that since the beginning of 2022 in Catalonia fines were not being charged to foreign vehicles hunted by speeding radars.
The person in charge of the SCT explained that from January to May of this year, 32,000 fines have been notified to foreign citizens of the European Union and 50% of them have been collected. Lamiel explained that an average fine of 63 euros is charged and advocated the introduction of more effective collaboration mechanisms between international agencies so that fines can be prosecuted and collected.
The director of Trànsit explained, on the other hand, that until last Tuesday there had been a 13.5% reduction in fatalities compared to the same period in 2019 and a reduction of 11.1% compared to last year, while accidents fatalities have decreased by 21.1% compared to 2019 and 12.5% in relation to 2022. “We can never be happy and we do not like to express it, but these data do reflect the work of traffic agents in the Mossos d'Esquadra", sentenced Lamiel.
The director of the Servei Català de Trànsit also explained that during the months of February and May there has been a reduction in traffic accidents with fatalities compared to 2019 and 2022, and that this reduction is due to the rains in those months that have caused a decrease in mobility.
During 2022, the province of Girona was the one that caused the most concern due to its high accident rate, but this year the data has improved, while in the province of Lleida the records prior to the pandemic are repeated and have doubled compared to last year.
Regarding the type of accidents, Ramon Lamiel assured that frontal collisions predominate and there are still worrying data on vulnerable groups, especially motorcyclists. On the AP-7 motorway, he celebrated a reduction in fatalities of almost 70% compared to 2022, which he attributed in part to the "pressure of the Mossos d'Esquadra and the massive controls."
