Safe distance and appropriate speed are two concepts that all of us who drive should always keep in mind if we want to avoid accidents. If we go faster than we should, we can have an accident, and as the speed increases, so do the consequences we can suffer.
The same goes for the safety distance, which is vital to avoid colliding with the vehicle in front of us. There are reaction times when the person in front of us starts to brake and we have not even noticed yet; this reaction time is on average a quarter of a second.
Now, if we add up the reaction time and the speed, we realise how much space we really need to avoid an accident. As is known, the DGT and by extension the Guardia Civil de Tráfico place special emphasis on this. And with special emphasis we mean that they take out the ticket book quickly.
The Civil Guard fines a motorcyclist for falling pic.twitter.com/QB7IGuY1a0
— SocialDrive (@SocialDrive_es) June 19, 2024
In fact, a few months ago there was a very controversial situation in which a motorcyclist who had fallen on a stretch of road in Valencia with a speed limit of 40 was fined because, according to the agents, “you don’t fall at 40”. Despite arriving after the user’s own call and the fact that the fall had obviously been at low speed judging by the damage to both the motorcycle and the equipment, the user got away with the fine.
The striking multiple accident involving the Civil Guard resulted in no injuries
But as life has many twists and turns, and mobile phones are recording, especially in places like La Vuelta Ciclista a España, we have now seen how not one, but four Guardia Civil motorcycles have been involved in a multiple accident. Among them, at low speed, and in which, fortunately, there were no personal injuries to regret, largely due to the equipment they use and the airbag vests.
Several Civil Guard motorcycles crash at the end of the La Vuelta stage in Milladoiro. pic.twitter.com/Qc35Kj1k1Q
— ThisIsHappening (@ThisIsHappeningThis) August 29, 2024
And after this accident, what will happen? It is obvious that despite being on duty, they were driving at a speed greater than that recommended for the state of the road, where there were more vehicles. It is also more than obvious that three of them collided with the motorcycle in front of them and the officer in charge did not collide with the car in front because it was moving. Therefore, it is clear that the safety distance was not correct even though the accident was caused by the fourth motorcyclist.
As you will know if you have suffered a rear-end accident, in many cases, in addition to the accident, there is also a fine for not respecting the safety distance, which is the one that allows you to stop without colliding with the vehicle in front of you. In this case, it is clear that this fine, if it were you or me, would be imposed on us and rightly so, and, furthermore, following the logic of the Valencia crash video, there should also be a fine for falling.
Accident in Milladoiro, the GC arrived very quickly pic.twitter.com/5wMmhoUUWr
— Carlos (@jocamoga) August 29, 2024
In the end, these situations show that we are all human and can make mistakes. And no matter how good a driver you are, sometimes things don’t go as you expect, you end up on the ground and you don’t deserve to be “rewarded” with a fine.
