Traffic rules are essential to maintaining safety on our roads. Traffic regulations establish a series of rules and restrictions that must be followed by all drivers with the aim of preventing accidents, protecting the safety of road users and ensuring an efficient flow of traffic.
When a driver does not follow the rules and commits an infraction, they can be reported and fined. Some fouls, in addition to forcing the offender to dig deep, also involve the loss of points. The minimum points lost for committing an infraction is 2 and the maximum is 6.
One of the questions that often arises among people who have received a report for committing an infraction that involves the loss of points is when those credits will be deducted. It is important to remember that all drivers start with a balance of 12 points on their license -8 for beginners-, and that they lose the right to drive if they completely exhaust their balance of points. Therefore, it is essential to know when those points will be deducted so that you can take action and take a course to recover the deducted credits if necessary.
The General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) explains that, after notifying a complaint that results in the loss of points, the withdrawal of points is not automatic. The stolen credits are no longer available to the driver a few days after being reported. If you do not appeal the sanction, the effective loss of points occurs after the 20-day period you have to file the appeal. This period begins to count from the notification of the sanction.
Traffic emphasizes that, although the driver pays the fine within 20 days to benefit from the 50% discount for prompt payment, “in no case” is the bonus applied to the points. He will always lose the same amount of points regardless of when he pays the amount of the penalty.
If the offender appeals the fine notified to him, he will lose the right to any discount and must pay the fine in full if the appeal is rejected. In addition, the loss of points will be applied when you receive notification of the negative resolution of the appeal.
In order to correctly control the points of the more than 27 million drivers in Spain, it is essential that the city councils and organizations with jurisdiction over Traffic sanctioning matters notify the DGT of the infractions committed by the drivers that they have detected. These organizations notify Traffic sanctions through the SIPP (Permission Information System for Points).
Although the regulations establish that serious and very serious sanctions and the deduction of points must be communicated to the DGT within 15 calendar days, in practice this is not always the case. Mario Arnaldo, president of Associated European Motorists (AEA), denounces that city councils systematically fail to comply with this rule in a generalized manner. “In Spain there are 8,000 town councils and the majority do not communicate the sanctions to the DGT within the stipulated period.”
According to the president of AEA, the lack of urgency on the part of city councils when communicating sanctions to Traffic creates “legal uncertainty” for drivers. “It may be the case that a driver requests a report from Traffic to find out the number of points he has on his license and that figure does not match the next day because he has been fined retroactively.”
Mario Arnaldo explains that the entities that must notify the DGT of the fines they impose on drivers have a maximum period of one year to do so. After this time the violation is not recorded. “This is a bummer. It is an anomaly of the points-based license, since a driver does not know the number of points he has on his license until the penalty is recorded. A situation that worsens in cases in which a person does not know if he has to take a points recovery course to avoid being exposed to being left without a license.
The points-based license was implemented in Spain on July 1, 2006. Since its entry into force, more than 10 million drivers have lost some point and more than 300,000 have been left without a license after exhausting their entire credit. The implementation of this violation control system has contributed decisively to the improvement of road safety, since the number of deaths in traffic accidents has been significantly reduced.
