Tráfico controls for drink and drugs campaign

[Janet]

Tráfico has announced an alcohol and drugs campaign with checkpoints throughout the country for drunk or drugged drivers. The campaign will last until next Sunday and will see 25,000 checks a day. JA

[Nova]

At €1,000 a time this should be fun    I saw my first €1,000 fine a couple of weeks ago, for drugs.  Have to admit it was quite satisfying... 

[Michael]

Tráfico has announced an alcohol and drugs campaign with checkpoints throughout the country for drunk or drugged drivers. The campaign will last until next Sunday and will see 25,000 checks a day. JA

Go Trafico! 

At €1,000 a time this should be fun    I saw my first €1,000 fine a couple of weeks ago, for drugs.  Have to admit it was quite satisfying... 

How did you keep the smirk off your face? 

[Nova]

How did you keep the smirk off your face? 

I'm a professional 

[Perikles]

I saw my first €1,000 fine a couple of weeks ago, for drugs.  Have to admit it was quite satisfying... 

That must have been some drug you were on to make it worth it 

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

For the record, I do not drink and drive.  And I don't do any drugs. 

However my curiosity drives me to ask this question:  how are such traffic stops conducted here in Spain?

Recently, I have been reading about 'voluntary' traffic stops in the USA in which drivers are stopped and asked to 'voluntarily' give blood samples; shades of the thread Pelinor started about DNA.  Over the 4th of July weekend, there were going to be stops where people would be breathalised then forced to give a blood sample, which is pretty much flying in the face of established practice and may well be illegal.  But them that wants the blood have guns, so there is not a lot of wriggle room. 

So it's got me wondering what to expect should one be politely summoned to the side of the road by some nice man in a snazzy Guardia Civil outfit. 

[Nova]

Good question.  I imagine here there's a legal obligation to comply and that refusing would carry its own fine.  Janet?

[Perikles]

people would be breathalised then forced to give a blood sample,

But surely only if the breathaliser reading were positive? They must have some specific reason for a blood sample, don't they?

[Janet]

how are such traffic stops conducted here in Spain?

Good question.  I imagine here there's a legal obligation to comply and that refusing would carry its own fine.  Janet?

They announce these "campaigns", and then set up control points. It's obligatory to stop ... failure to do so could result in your tyres being shot at, and certainly you being chased. Breath tests don't have to be taken, but failure to do so will result in a fine for a double level alcohol level (that's the law so the courts would uphold it). The drugs test is apparently a saliva smear test. Same thing - not obligatory, but failure to take one will result in ...

The only thing that's obligatory in all this is to drive into the checkpoint control zone when ordered to by a Guardia Civil officer (or the policia local if they're manning them for them as they do sometimes).

edit: having checked, I take it back ... under the new legislation recently approved it is now an offence to refuse to take a test ...

If a driver refuses an alcohol or drugs test, s/he will be committing a further offence under article 383 of the Código Penal which can be penalised with a prison sentence of between six months and a year, and a driving ban of between one and four years. (First offenders won't be imprisoned). This is in addition to an automatic maximum €1,000 fine as though the driver had tested positive with double permitted alcohol level. Vehicles of drunk drivers will be impounded if there is no other (sober) driver who can take control.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

But surely only if the breathaliser reading were positive? They must have some specific reason for a blood sample, don't they?

Two come to mind:

1)  Building a database
2)  Keeping the populace fearful and accustomed to obeying orders