Speed trap 'tolerance threshold' revealed by traffic authorities

Limits of up to 100 kilometres per hour with speed cameras set up, either fixed ones or temporary speed traps, will be programmed to catch drivers travelling at seven kilometres per hour or more above the limit.

These measures will not apply in the regions of Catalunya and the Basque Country, which have their own separate traffic authorities.

This means in a 60-kilometre limit, drivers will not be fined until they are caught travelling at 68 kilometres per hour.

From 100 kilometres per hour upwards, speed traps will be set to record driver details once they exceed the speed limit by 7% or more.

On motorways, where the speed limit is 120 kilometres per hour unless stated, anyone driving at 131 kilometres per hour or more will be fined.

And once the planned 130-kilometre stretches are in place, those travelling at over 139 kilometres per hour will face penalties.

Every month, the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) will carry out special crackdown campaigns in 1,200 places on Spain's roads, and will publish on its website - www.dgt.es - where these will be in advance.

Cameras will always be visible to drivers, even mobile ones on roadside tripods, a short time in advance but long enough for drivers to be able to slow down.

"Fining drivers is not the end aim at all - the presence of speed cameras is to discourage and prevent speeding and to ensure drivers respect speed limits in general, especially in accident blackspots," the DGT claims on its website.

Unmarked cars will be employed to catch known speeders who regularly break the limits by excessive amounts.

Another 30 cameras are set to go up, mainly on back roads rather than motorways.

Eight in 10 road deaths happen on secondary roads, or a total of 892 in 2014.

The margin for error in speeds, known as 'Tolerance 7', has been established firstly to ensure all cameras across the country are consistent and a driver would not be fined in one region where he or she would be considered within legal limits in another, and also to ensure motorists who do not have digital speed-o-meters can judge better whether or not they are travelling too fast.

If the 7% threshold were to be applied across the board, says the DGT, this would mean drivers travelling at 33 kilometres per hour in a 30-kilometre limit would automatically be fined - and the three-kilometre difference would barely show on a non-digital speed-o-meter, resulting in an unfair situation to the motorist.

But if, on the same stretch of road, the driver is travelling at 38 kilometres per hour, it is easier to see that the needle is has risen too high.

Speed traps will be able to detect the type of vehicle before they flash into action - until now, lorries, vans and buses breaking the limit for vehicles of this nature but within those permitted for cars and motorbikes would get away with it as the cameras could not 'read' the vehicle type, only the speed it was travelling at.

Lorries, cars towing trailers, caravans or horseboxes exceeding 750 kilos in weight, and articulated vehicles are limited to 90 kilometres per hour on motorways, 80 kilometres on national highways and 70 on roads in other non-built up areas.

All vehicles on town roads are limited to 50 kilometres per hour, except those carrying hazardous merchandise, which are limited to 40 kilometres per hour.

Where cars are caught speeding but the driver is not stopped and identified, the registration number will be used to check on a computer system whether the vehicle has a valid ITV - Spain's answer to an MOT - and at least third party insurance.