Certified letter from DGT

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Superplonk
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Certified letter from DGT

Postby Superplonk » Sun May 10, 2015 7:11 pm

Tomorrow morning I have to pick one of these up from the post office. Any idea what it could be? Speeding fines just get sent through the normal post. I´ve spent the weekend trying to remember every little occasion on which I´ve bent the rules in the last six months.

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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby Beachcomber » Sun May 10, 2015 8:02 pm

It is impossible to say what it could be but a friend who received a speeding fine was notified by registered letter and received an extra fine for failing to respond to a request to supply the identity of the driver which he never received. He was most embarrassed because he is a retired Deputy Chief Constable of a UK police force.

One way of avoiding this kind of worry is to get a digital signature and register with DGT to receive notifications online. This also avoids the possibility of getting extra fines and surcharges for late payment because you did not receive the notification.

You could try entering your name and/or NIE number or vehicle registration number here without a digital signature:

https://sede.dgt.gob.es/es/aplicaciones ... cado.shtml

but a negative result is not 100% reliable.

Please let us know the result.
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gerryh
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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby gerryh » Sun May 10, 2015 8:59 pm

You can also try this site http://www.buscamultas.com/
No digital signature needed.
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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby Superplonk » Sun May 10, 2015 9:05 pm

Thankyou both. No fines outstanding apparently. It's a one hour walk (the wife has the car tomorrow) down a semi-mountain to the Post Office, so this had better be worth it. Perhaps I've won a prize for careful driving.

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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby Beachcomber » Sun May 10, 2015 10:45 pm

Busca multas does sometimes work but it is compiled from information contained in provincial bulletins by which time it is too late to avoid extra fines for late payments.
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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby gerryh » Mon May 11, 2015 7:50 am

I don't know if all Spanish insurance companies are the same but Linea Directa claim they will inform their clients of any motoring fines and contest them on their behalf.
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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby Superplonk » Mon May 11, 2015 11:45 am

And it was a fine! Before I hand myself in, what exactly is it that the insurance company can do for the speeding motorist? Looking at Streetview images, I can see a 60 sign that I'd never noticed before, in a place that doesn't seem to make much sense. It IS there though. Do I have any way out? There's 150 euros and 2 points on my licence at stake.

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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby Beachcomber » Mon May 11, 2015 11:57 am

Check if your insurance covers 'gestion de multas'. If it is Linea Directa it will but I'm not sure about other companies.

How much over the limit do they claim you were travelling? To lose two points means that you must have been travelling at over 90kph according to their chart:

Image

https://sede.dgt.gob.es/Galerias/tramit ... ocidad.pdf
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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby Superplonk » Mon May 11, 2015 12:05 pm

Ahem.....yes: 93. It's the short section of the Coin-Marbella road as you approach the Monda service station. I'd never noticed any sign intended for traffic going straight on towards the coast.
So is that something that the insurance could gestionar?

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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby Beachcomber » Mon May 11, 2015 12:31 pm

I know exactly where you mean. It is a favourite place for them.

I drove past a speed check there a couple of months ago. There are three places where the limit goes down to 60 on that stretch of road near Monda and I always make a point of keeping to the limit although, on this occasion, I also saw the speed check vehicle parked in the track on the left that runs parallel to the road just prior to the service station and there was also a long line of traffic behind me.

They stopped me just along the road but I knew I had been within the limit and I knew that my black box dashcam which also records speed, braking and g-force etc in conjunction with a real time satellite graphic would prove it but they asked me how I knew there was a mobile speed camera there and searched my car for a radar detector. They were obviously miffed that I had deprived them of so many potential victims in the line of traffic behind me.

I don't think your insurance company will be able to help even if they offer the 'gestion de multa' service but it is probably worth a phone call.
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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby Superplonk » Mon May 11, 2015 12:38 pm

I feel they are getting overly keen on this sort of thing. That's a long, straight, safe road with excellent visibility and a separate lane for petrol station traffic. Meanwhile, I frequently pass GC vehicles parked on the outside lanes of roundabouts. I wish I could fine them, grumble grumble.

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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby Superplonk » Mon May 11, 2015 1:50 pm

I have paid up. It seems that nothing was showing in the fines pending sections of the DGT or Buscamultas sites because the driver had not yet been identified. After a couple of hours of wrestling with the relevant pages I was able to do that. Interestingly, I had to tell them how much the fine was in order to access the payment section. I have a receipt for the payment, but there was no mention of points, and it won't let me check how many points I have remaining. Perhaps they'll send another certified letter about that.

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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby Beachcomber » Mon May 11, 2015 4:27 pm

The points checking system often doesn't work even when using a digital signature.

It seems likely that, on this occasion, you were clocked by the helicopter. This is often just a random check and they don't set up a stopping point down the road.

They have to catch a set number of offenders in order to justify the cost of using it for this purpose. You need to be very careful on the whole of that road not just when you go past the fixed camera opposite the lay-by as you approach Marbella and particularly at the point where it drops back down to 40kph after it has gone up to 70 for a couple of kilometres as well as ensuring that your wheels do not stray over the continuous white line in the particularly bendy section.
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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby El Cid » Mon May 11, 2015 5:39 pm

Beachcomber wrote:
It seems likely that, on this occasion, you were clocked by the helicopter. This is often just a random check and they don't set up a stopping point down the road.
.
Whilst there are a plenty of Trafico helicopters around there are only 2 in the whole country that are currently equipped with the Pegasus speed system. I don't know whether one is down here, but it seems unlikely. They tend to catch people making illegal turns or crossing the white line.

Incidentally, the 7% tolerance that you mentioned in the other thread does not seem to apply to aircraft.

The table above does not apply to the procedures for measuring speeds on board aircraft equipment, the system uses another method based on three consecutive measurements performed three seconds each.

Sid

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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby Superplonk » Mon May 11, 2015 6:04 pm

The photo of my car was taken from ground level. I'm pretty sure it was taken from an unmarked car parked just at the petrol station turn.

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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby Beachcomber » Mon May 11, 2015 6:26 pm

I thought they usually stopped vehicles at mobile checks but obviously not. I know people who have been stopped at La Cañada roundabout for speeding and were told the check was made by a helicopter.

Sid, do you think that just mean the chart or the 7% tolerance because the chart itself does not correspond to 7%. If it does that explains why Olive's contact received a fine for travelling at 107kph checked by one of the two helicopters.
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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby peteroldracer » Mon May 11, 2015 6:32 pm

I am sure I have read some pronouncement from DGT about all radar checks to be signposted - no more hiding in the bushes?
Lawyers in the UK would have great success in the courts if the same inconsistent signage was used there. I have lost count of how many "end of 80 limit" signs there are, without there ever being such a limit! Perhaps once upon a time 80 was the norm through areas with a junction etc, but never in my time here.
The notorious trap area next to the 'Pub Carib' brothel on the Velez-Málaga bypass always frightens me - not for the risk of being caught, but because of the stupidly dangerous tailgating by other traffic not happy about me maintaining 60kph through the section!
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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby El Cid » Mon May 11, 2015 7:00 pm

Trafico have said that they will give details of where mobile radars can be expected. So far they have only done this for Asturias and Castilla y Leon.

If you look at the details, they just give the road on which they may be encountered and the start and end km of the controlled stretch. It sounds good until you see that the length of the stretch could be as much as 40km.

They are also planning to instal more average speed radars like the one in the Torrox tunnel and on the N340 coming into Malaga near Mijas costa.

They are also tending to concentrate on speeding on the non motorway roads where there is a 100 limit as this is where to vast majority of accidents occur. The fixed radars on the motorways do tend to be in the really bad 80kph limits like the one approaching Malaga on the bendy stretch near Añoreta Golf and coming out of Malaga just after the Calderon tunnel.

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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby Beachcomber » Mon May 11, 2015 8:03 pm

I agree with POR. Far more dangerous than the excess speed is the tailgating and dangerous overtaking manoeuvres committed by intolerant drivers who object to being held up by those wishing to comply with the speed limit.

I related an incident while ago where I was obeying a 50kph speed limit on a wide straight road with no junctions and several vehicles overtook me including a police car the driver of which stopped me and berated me for driving so slowly and causing a danger to other traffic.

The sergeant in charge of the police station in the town where the officer was based was totally unsympathetic and told me that no-one ever kept to the speed limit along that road and advised me to 'go with the flow'.
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Re: Certified letter from DGT

Postby dxf » Mon May 11, 2015 10:48 pm

Hola

For those with smartphones, there is an app called "Social drive" which advises of where the GC are.

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