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The use of seat belts is compulsory in all vehicles on the roads of Spain. The Directorate-General of Traffic (DGT) said that it is a safety device that considerably reduces the number of injuries and their severity in the event of an accident. Despite this, in the province of Malaga in 2022 some 4,035 fines were issued for not wearing it and a total of 5,323 drivers were fined for using a mobile phone at the wheel.
Location of the cameras that fine drivers without seatbelts and those who use their mobile phones at the wheel
At a national level, the DGT has deployed a total of 227 cameras to monitor both the use of seat belts and mobile phones on conventional and busy roads. In the province of Malaga there are 17 points where these automated controls are located. Two of these cameras are located on the MA-20, while on the A-7 there are as many at different kilometre points. Vehicles travelling on the N340, the A-355 and the A-368 are also monitored.
As explained by the DGT, the images captured by these cameras are subjected to strict quality control. They are sent daily to the Automated Complaint Processing Centre, a department that performs telematic and administrative support functions for the processing of offences detected by technical means. Once there, "software specifically designed for this purpose checks each of the photographs, automatically monitoring, by means of artificial vision techniques, the use of seat belts by the driver. The software itself will discard those photographs in which it detects that the driver is indeed wearing a seat belt," explained the DGT.
The images in which the software does not identify the seat belt being worn are checked manually by operators who discard all photographs where there could be any doubt about the use of such a device.
After the image is viewed manually at the Automated Complaints Processing Centre, it is sent to the corresponding DGT provincial headquarters, where it is manually checked again to ensure that the vehicle driver is indeed not wearing a seatbelt, in order to initiate the appropriate penalty procedure.
Location of the cameras across Spain that fine drivers without seat belts and those who use their mobile phones at the wheel:
What happens if a driver is caught talking on his mobile phone or without his seatbelt unfastened? The owner of the vehicle will receive a request at their home address to identify the driver who appears in the attached photographs. If a co-driver appears in the photograph, the face will be pixelated.
Once the driver has been identified, a fine of 200 euros and the deduction of four points for both the seatbelt and the use of the mobile phone offences will be sent. And be careful because, in the event that the owner does not identify the person driving, a new fine will be issued for failure to identify the driver. Failure to identify is a very serious offence and the fine is three times the fine for the original offence, i.e. 600 euros, as specified by the DGT.
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