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Spain steps up roadside tests to crack down on drunk drivers

Spanish traffic authorities are cracking down on drunk driving after a spate of recent accidents resulting in the death of cyclists on the road.

Published: 17 May 2017 16:21 CEST
Spain steps up roadside tests to crack down on drunk drivers
Photo: Monartfoto/Depositphotos

The General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) this week announced plans to carry out more roadside controls to test for drivers under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

The measures will include an extra 130,000 spot tests and will target drivers out on the road early on Saturday and Sunday mornings when the roads tend to be busiest with recreational cyclists.

Authorities said they will also introduce harsher penalties for those who are caught repeat offending, including steep fines and outright bans for anyone caught over the legal alcohol limit for a second time in two years.

More than 400 cyclists have been killed on Spain’s roads in the last decade, according to El Pais, with the number of accidents involving cyclists and cars doubling between 2009 and 2015.

Earlier this month three cyclists were killed on a road outside Oliva, on Spain’s Costa Blanca, after being ploughed into by a 28-year-old woman who tested positive for both alcohol and drugs.

It later emerged that the driver, who veered across the road into a cycling club on a Sunday morning, was a repeat offender and had lost her licence after being caught drunk driving four years ago.

As the region mourned  the death of the cyclists, Juan Carlos Moragues, the central government’s representative in the Valencia region, demanded greater awareness of the problem of drunk driving.

“We have to be conscious that somebody behind the wheel who is under the influence of alcohol and drugs is a deadly weapon,” he said.

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DRIVING

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

If you move within Spain and change address, you'll also need to change the registered address for your car in order to pay vehicle tax. Here's how to do it.

Published: 25 March 2024 15:31 CET
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.

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