Spaniards face sanctions if found to be drunk in charge of a pair of legs

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/28/spain-proposal-to-breathalyse-pedestrians

Version 0 of 1.

Pedestrians in Spain could soon be breathalysed and made to obey speed limits in proposals by officials hoping to make the country’s streets safer.

The plans have sparked a dispute, with the government’s top advisory council calling it a violation of Spaniards’ rights.

Earlier this year, Spain’s Directorate General of Traffic, the government body responsible for managing traffic, proposed a new “tool to foster better relations and coexistence between pedestrians, cyclists, motorists and vehicles”.

Tucked between suggestions for increased fines for drunk-driving and better regulation of driving schools was a change that would define pedestrians as “users of the road”, putting them on a par with drivers.

Pedestrians could be required to take on-the-spot alcohol and drug tests if implicated in a traffic accident or traffic offence.

The proposal also sets out a speed limit for pavements, limiting the pace to “not surpassing that of a normal stride”.

The Council of State, the government’s top advisory council, in a report seen by Europa Press, urged the government body to overhaul the proposal.

The measures would hinder the freedom and personal privacy of Spaniards as well as their right to circulate freely, it said.

Spaniards, continued the report, “could possibly abstain from fiestas or from attending weddings and celebrations where alcohol is consumed, since they could be subject to an alcohol test if a vehicle near them is involved in an accident”.

As for the speed limits suggested for pedestrians, the report worried it would amount to a “prohibition on jogging”.

The traffic directorate has responded to the criticisms, insisting that police already have the power to carry out alcohol and drug tests on pedestrians who break laws.

“Municipal police have been carrying out these tests for months – there is nothing new here that will allow us to start sanctioning pedestrians, whether economically or with penalty points,” said María Seguí Gómez, the organisation’s director general.

She defended the need for new measures – saying that of the 370 pedestrians killed in 2014, more than half had alcohol or drugs in their blood.

The council’s concerns over jogging were completely unfounded, she said, as the proposal over pavement speed limits had been taken out of context.

The limits were aimed at imposing control over very specific situations, she said, such as when cyclists must share a stretch of pavement with pedestrians.

She told Europa Press that the department stood by its proposal, noting that it been open to public consultation for a year and a half as part of an open debate.