The Guardia Civil in Valencia carries out more alcohol control tests on the Valencia roads

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The Guardia Civil in Valencia carries out more alcohol control tests on the Valencia roads. The number of Valencians that have lost all points on their driver's licence after traffic violations has quadrupled last year.

According to the Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT) there were 353 drivers in the province of Valencia who lost all their points in 2007 whilst there were 1,105 in 2008, which is an increase of 213%.

This spectacular increase of people who as a result are left with zero points for six months has caused a bottleneck for the three recovery training centres in Valencia.  Note that the Spanish system takes points away from 12 that they start with, whilst the English system adds points.  The Spanish system also adds three bonus points when drivers have had no convictions for the last two years, so many drivers have 15 points. 

Before the banned drivers get their licence back, they have to attend a special course.   These courses are to enable those that had their licence taken away, to obtain a new one with all 12 points put back. As a result, they have had to increase the courses being run from one per month to four per month.

The Valencian Driving School Association (Association of Autoescuelas -AVAE) have explained that right now they do not have places on the courses and dates are now for a month ahead.  These special courses are solely for those having lost their licences. These special courses cost 349.96 Euros and it is a requirement to take this course during the six months of loss of the licence.  The person then has to retake their test to get the license back.  Of the 1,105 who lost their licence last year 838 people are still going through this process.

The motoring club RACC have commented that as a result of these reequirements that it is likely that some people will actually be without their licenses for a whole year and not just 6 months. This, in their opinion means that the system loses it's effectiveness.  Editor's note: It also imposes a double penality on the driver who lost his licence for 6 months, but after all, this IS Spain! (Aren't all systems based on the manaña principle?)

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