Checkpoint Warnings Must Not be Shared

Throughout the year, the security services like the Guardia Civil and Police will hold checkpoints for a variety of reasons, such as traffic related campaigns focussing on alcohol and drugs, or documentation, and could be for other reasons we may not be aware of, but whatever the reason, one thing will always be true, you should never share this information with anybody, because, as the DGT themselves point out, you don’t know who you are alerting.

For many years it was common for drivers to flash their headlights to warn oncoming vehicles of the presence of a checkpoint nearby, now these warnings are sent through groups on social networks in which many drivers participate.

The sharing of this information may allow drivers to avoid radars and checkpoints, or alcohol checks, which is having a very negative impact on road safety. It may also mean that a wanted person avoids being caught, such as was the subject of a French commercial advising similar which featured a child abductor managing to evade capture as a result of a warning.

On the night of April 23, 2022, the lives of a Balearic family of five were tragically disrupted when they came across a drunk driver on a road near Llucmajor who, at the time of the incident, was three times the permitted alcohol limit. The father of the family died, while the mother and the couple’s three daughters were seriously injured. The trial for this fatal incident will take place next year. These dramatic events could have been avoided if the driver in question had crossed paths with a checkpoint of the Traffic Group of the Guardia Civil, as the vehicle would have been immediately immobilised and its driver detained.

Avoiding these controls by announcing their location is precisely the objective of the groups that have been created on social networks such as WhatsApp or Telegram, among others. The first ones began to appear in 2012, although the phenomenon grew more from 2014 when applications such as Social Drive or Waze appeared specifically dedicated to road safety. Their appearance at that time was perceived as beneficial for road safety, since they reported incidents on the roads, traffic conditions or weather. However, other types of information soon began to be incorporated: the location of traffic controls and speed cameras.

Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Hidalgo Romero, head of the ATGC in Galicia, explains that “the problem is that they see us as tax collectors, and they don’t realise that the only thing the Guardia Civil controls collect is lives. With these messages they are giving people the freedom to drink as much as they want. They feel immune because the probability of being arrested is very low.”

“When you post a message on one of these groups, you never know who you are warning because they are full of criminals, people who have committed crimes outside of road safety and it is the citizens themselves who keep them informed of police action, they do not need any more collaboration,” says the officer.

At an operational level, the way in which surveillance work is carried out has been modified. On the one hand, the so-called “express checks” have been chosen: the operation lasts only 15 minutes (previously it could last up to 2 hours) in exchange for placing it in many more places. The ATGC has also decided to play with the element of surprise by implementing “dynamic checks”, that is, a patrol stops a vehicle at random while it is driving. “This way we convey the idea that we can stop people at any time,” explains Lieutenant Colonel Hidalgo.

At the same time, legislative measures are being considered, including legal amendments. In fact, some complaints have already been filed, appealing to article 36.23 of the Citizen Security Law, which expressly prohibits “the unauthorised use of images or personal or professional data of authorities or members of the Security Forces and Corps that may endanger personal safety”. However, this approach does not seem to be sufficient to deal with this phenomenon because not all notices include images of the controls.

Therefore, plans are afoot that most likely in 2025, laws will change, following the approval of a non-legislative motion, proposed by the PSOE, in which the Government was urged to modify article 77 of the Law on Traffic, Circulation of Motor Vehicles and Road Safety in order to “sanction those who provide information that hinders or prevents the task of controlling non-compliance with traffic regulations.”