A van driver has been acquitted of a dangerous driving charge; not because his excuse was accepted, but because the judge found 187 kph to be too ambitious, given the type of vehicle.

Sr. E.A.R. had been facing a not inconsiderable fine of 3,240 euros and a 2-year, driving-licence suspension after the police, speed radar clocked him at 187 kph on the A-4 in Jaén. The man had been driving what is technically classified as a ‘small lorry or truck’ (a pick-up), which means that the top speed should only be 90 kph.

He admitted to the judge that he had been speeding, but because he had chest pains, indicative of a pending heart-attack, and as his doctor had advised him to get to hospital as quick as he could should this happen, he was simply obeying the doctor’s orders to save his own life.

Even though the judge, Valle Elena Gómez, was not that impressed by this excuse, what swayed her judgement was that such a speed was highly improbable for a 2nd-hand vehicle of this nature on the flat; i.e., it wasn’t downhill where he was clocked. She reached this conclusion after examining the specifications for the said type of vehicle and observing that even brand new, it could only reach 170 kph.

Whilst she did not doubt that the driver had been speeding, given that the maximum permitted speed on that stretch of the autovia was 80 kph, she considered that reasonable doubt existed on the radar results. Consequently, he was acquitted of dangerous driving due to high speed and fined, instead, 600 euros for simply speeding – which is an administrative sanction and not a crime – and the fine was accompanied by a loss of two points from his driving licence.

(News, Jaen, Andalucia)