Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

DRIVING

Kamikaze driver held in Spain for live-streaming at 200 km/h

Spanish police have arrested a young man who live-streamed video of himself driving at nearly twice the speed limit, forcing other drivers to swerve out of the way to avoid being hit, police said Monday.

Published: 10 May 2016 09:45 CEST

Kamikaze driver held in Spain for live-streaming at 200 km/h

Stock photo of a speeding car. Photo: Richard Giles / Flickr

The man posted several videos he made on his mobile phone using the live-streaming app Periscope which show his harrowing top-speed driving on roads in Madrid at night, police said in a statement.

Conducía de forma temeraria a 200km/h y lo periscopeaba… Gracias a vosotros lo hemos detenido #SLMFDM ✌https://t.co/w2bbqNUfVs

— Policía Nacional (@policia) May 9, 2016

In one clip he is seen driving on a ring road that surrounds the Spanish capital at over 195 kilometres (120 miles) per hour in an area where the speed limit is 100 km / h, it added.

“Let's go, 200 without any problem. Let's go. let's go,” he can be heard saying in the video as his car quickly approaches another vehicle.

Police arrested the man in Rivas-Vaciamadrid located just southeast of Madrid after receiving several complaints from people who had seen the videos.

Authorities said he was charged with dangerous driving, but did not release the date of his arrest.

“Besides the danger posed by driving while using his mobile telephone in videos that lasted over 16 minutes, the detainee performed manuevers at high speed that forced other drivers to switch lanes to avoid collisions on at least four occasions,” the statement said.

The authorities said it is the first time that someone has been arrested in Spain for a crime involving Periscope, which allows anyone to live-stream an event through their mobile phones.

Viewers of Periscope videos can participate by sending cartoon hearts across the video feed and typing comments which scroll across the screen for all to see.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

How to change the registered address for your car if you move in Spain

When you buy a car in Spain the driving authority, the Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT), asks you to register your car so that you (and they) can have a reference of where it is, who owns it and, crucially, where you’ll pay tax on it.

This information is necessary because paying vehicle tax in Spain (known as Impuesto sobre Vehículos de Tracción Mecánica or IVTM) depends on where in the country you live, and differs slightly depending on the municipality where you are registered.

You pay the tax in the municipality in which the vehicle is registered, and though the exact amount depends on your area and the type of car you have, generally speaking the annual tax is between €112 and €300 for the year.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: What you need to know about road tax in Spain

IVTM is a tax you pay at the municipal level, that is, to your local town hall. According to the DGT, “the Traffic Tax of a vehicle is a mandatory tax that is applied on all motor vehicles, allowing them to circulate on public roads throughout the country”.

But what happens if you move?

Well, it depends. If you’re moving but staying within the same municipality, not much, but if you’re moving across the country to a new part of Spain, you’ll need to change your car’s registered address with the DGT.

How can you request a change of tax address for your car in Spain?

Any change of tax address must be requested by the owner of the vehicle or a duly authorised person on their behalf. There are four ways to request it:

Online – this is done through the DGT’s website, which you can find here. If it’s a general application, you shouldn’t need to attach any documentation. You can simply change the address of all your vehicles or select only those you wish to modify, choosing between the registration address or the tax address of the owner.

For vehicles moving from the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla to the Spanish mainland peninsula or the Balearic Islands, or agricultural vehicles or those with any type of legal limitations or restrictions, you must make the application through the special cases option (supuestos especiales on the DGT website).

In this case, you essentially need to get documentation proving that the car has been cleared through customs. If it is an agricultural vehicle, you will need to provide the document showing that you have reported the change in Spain’s Official Register of Agricultural Machinery (ROMA).

By phone –- call 060, which is the number in Spain to get through to the Servicio de Información de la Administración General del Estado, essentially the go-to contact number for all things public services and administration. You can contact the DGT through this number, where they will check that the address you indicate coincides with the one on the INE register and, if so, make the requested change for you.

READ ALSO: The tricks drivers use to pay less in car taxes in Spain

DGT App — If you have the miDGT app, you can also change your address through the platform.

In person — you can also change your vehicle’s tax address at your town hall (ayuntamiento) where you are currently registered (pre-move) or at any DGT traffic office, though you will need to make an appointment online or by phone beforehand. You can do that here.

Url copied to clipboard!