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Spanish court sentenced driver, 85, to 6 months for clipping cyclist at speedLleida driver (via Instagram).PNG

Spanish court sentenced driver, 85, to 6 months for clipping cyclist at speed

Incident near Catalan city of Lleida left rider with slight injury to his hand
by Simon_MacMichael
Thu, Apr 18, 2019 14:44
9

A Spanish court handed an 85-year-old motorist who struck a cyclist’s hand in a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre a six-month jail sentence and banned him from driving for two years and two months.

Given that the rider was only slightly injured and didn’t file a complaint with police himself, it’s a startling sentence when considered from a UK perspective – we’ve covered numerous stories over the years in which motorists found guilty of causing the death of a cyclist have walked free from court.

The sentence in this case was handed down last July, with a report in El Pais highlighted in a forum post on road.cc by site user don simon fbpe, prompting us to take a closer look - and we thought it was worth highlighting to a wider audience.

According to the report, the driver was sentenced for reckless overtaking and endangering the life of the cyclist in the incident which took place last May near Lleida, midway between Barcelona and Zaragoza.

The cyclist, Albert Masano, filmed the incident with a GoPro. He sustained a minor wound to his hand but managed to stay on his bike, while the driver failed to stop at the scene.

According to the newspaper, the accused pleaded guilty and accepted the penalty that had been requested by the public prosecutor’s office.

Catalonia’s regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, were able to identify the driver after a friend of Masano’s who had posted the video to social media filed a complaint with them.

Offiicers were able to identify the motorist thanks to the vehicle’s registration number.

According to El Pais, the convicted person was not due to actually serve any time in prison because he has no previous convictions or outstanding fines.

It adds that no compensation will be payable to Masano because he did not file a claim.

Spain
Catalonia
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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9 comments

Avatar
Fish_n_Chips | 5 years ago
3 likes

About bloody time.  

Bring that to the U.K. too at least for accidents.  People kill and get off Scot-free.  It will only educate the public not do it by making examples of idiots.

Avatar
joeegg | 5 years ago
3 likes

        I read an article recently out in Spain that  penalties have been increased in relation to driving infractions,especially where injury or death occurs. This also applies to the 1.5m passing rule . A woman whose husband was killed while cycling lobbied the government for years to increase sentences. I am out in Spain for 6 months every year and a close pass is extremely rare. 

Avatar
cdamian replied to joeegg | 5 years ago
1 like
joeegg wrote:

        I read an article recently out in Spain that  penalties have been increased in relation to driving infractions,especially where injury or death occurs. This also applies to the 1.5m passing rule . A woman whose husband was killed while cycling lobbied the government for years to increase sentences. I am out in Spain for 6 months every year and a close pass is extremely rare. 

I live near Barcelona and close passes are indeed rate compared to other countries.
But there were some bad crashes in the past years with no sentencing and campaigning finally changed the attitude of the courts.

This week I also read that Spanish police is starting to use drones to track down drivers using mobile phones. I hope this applies to Catalunya too.

Avatar
ktache | 5 years ago
0 likes

But then the difficulty comes in finding the second independent witness.

Oh, and the signs for the motorist, well we'd stick them in the cycle route, but it's alright, the GREY posts would have a small white triangle in front of it

on https://www.google.com/maps/

@51.3809356,-0.7771446,3a,75y,18.9h,75.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sEoMLMUBm2KWOVgDI6sQRPA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

and

@51.382803,-0.7747652,3a,75y,18.9h,75.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZBawu9iEKid3NYBeGDpKJA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

and worst of all

@51.385397,-0.7729323,3a,75y,18.9h,75.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sMTii1EMSFhZu0YRVKKINHg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I apologise for not putting in simple links, but I tried and it didn't work, please cut and paste the nonsense strings once in google maps to see what engineers have done in an otherwise good shared cycle route, terrifyingly fast roads so I always use the shared route, and this is how I get to and from Swinley Forest.

Avatar
bikeman01 | 5 years ago
3 likes

Offiicers were able to identify the motorist thanks to the vehicle’s registration number.

There you go you usless fucking UK plod - it can be done.

Avatar
mikecassie | 5 years ago
3 likes

That might get the message through to some of the drivers in the UK who think it's 0.15m clearance they give us...  Over there there are signs reminding other road users to give 1.5m space when overtaking a cyclist.  We need them here TBH, boy would that rile the morons having them placed at the road sides.

Plus when I was there I was shocked how careful they were when overtaking, I'd be cycling along and wonder why the car would not overtake.  They really are very concientious  to cyclists.  

Avatar
don simon fbpe replied to mikecassie | 5 years ago
4 likes
mikecassie wrote:

That might get the message through to some of the drivers in the UK who think it's 0.15m clearance they give us...  Over there there are signs reminding other road users to give 1.5m space when overtaking a cyclist.  We need them here TBH, boy would that rile the morons having them placed at the road sides.

Plus when I was there I was shocked how careful they were when overtaking, I'd be cycling along and wonder why the car would not overtake.  They really are very concientious  to cyclists.  

Guardia Civil will have you (as a driver) for crossing the solid white line, especially on left turns, so folks will be less likely to overtake on a solid white line.

El plod have also used their own as unmarked cyclists to monitor close passing and fine people.

And generally the Spanish are a much nicer breed and have greater respect for other people.

There are, of course, wankers out there too as the number of cyclists that are killed is unacceptable.

A point of note, and something that I think is important, is the tone of the article. It's all very factual in representing what happened and makes no attempts at blaming the rider, nor excusing the driver. Even comments here are talking about the rider being on the "wrong" side of the broken line on the sliproad.

 

Avatar
srchar | 5 years ago
5 likes

Spent a few months cycling in that area a few years ago. There are signs everywhere reminding drivers to leave 1.5m when overtaking, plus miles of 6-foot wide cycle lanes. Some great climbs too. It's a great place to ride.

Avatar
Drpepper99uk | 5 years ago
3 likes

Wow,

 

That's what you call not messing around! I can't honestly ever see sentances like that being brought up in U.K courts...it's bad enough reading about riders seriously injured or even killed by bad judgements or deliberate acts of aggression behind the wheel and pathetic justice being done with a minimal fine to add insult to injury.

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