The Local Police of Salobreña intend to toughen up fines against bike riders without helmets and ‘discotheque cars; i.e. cars with sod-off music reproduction equipment, which are guaranteed to get you laid if you are a spotty male teenager and are not bothered about being deaf by 30.
In fact the Town Hall has drawn up new by-laws that will earn noisy-car owners fines of up to 600 euros.
“The old by-laws were completely obsolete, “explained the Inspector of the Policía Local, Alberto Sánchez, adding, “so there was a great need to produce new municipal regulations to combat traffic infringements.”
The fine for not wearing a helmet was 60 euros but under the new by-laws has been doubled to 120 euros. But it doesn’t stop there because the police can now immobilize the vehicle or confiscate it, if the bike rider doesn’t have a helmet on him, meaning that he would have to ride home without one.
This last measure eliminates the incongruence of whereby once fined the rider would ride off happily, knowing that he couldn’t be fined for the same offence within the same 24 hours. Now, the bike stays where it is until the rider returns with a helmet, and if he doesn’t, it is taken away to the police vehicle compound.
Acoustic contamination, as being noisy is termed, is probably the town’s worst enemy, the Councillor for Citizen Safety, Olga García, believes, hence the crack down on disco-cars. Again the vehicle can be towed away to a place where decibel readings can be made and if a negative assessment is made, a 600-euro fine will shortly follow.