MADRID, 7 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The plenary session of the Senate has definitively approved this Wednesday the ‘Cycling Law’, the Organic Law amending the Penal Code that affects recklessness in driving motor vehicles or mopeds and that corrects the decriminalization that was in force since 2015 .
This regulation will enter into force when it is published in the BOE and will serve to extend the protection of victims of traffic accidents by re-penalizing recklessness, an important matter after this summer’s figures.
The novelty modifies the concept of gross negligence, which may now be prosecuted ex officio, with the judges being able to initiate the procedure if they consider that there is gross negligence, without having to be requested by the victim. In addition, prosecutors will also be empowered to promote this type of criminal proceedings.
It is also provided that the criminal procedure can be initiated by an administrative authority when a road recklessness is appreciated, whether or not there are accidents or victims, something that previously could only be done at the request of a party and only if the judge detected a more or less serious recklessness.
In the vote, which occurred after the debate, the support was 144 senators, with 112 abstentions and four votes against. In this way, and after the majority support of the Upper House, the initiative is definitively approved. Specifically, the rule has had the vote in favor of all the parties represented in the Senate, with the exception of Vox, which has decided to vote against it, and the PP and PNV, which have chosen to abstain.
As stated in the text of the regulation, this modification responds to the defenselessness in which pedestrians or cyclists, victims of traffic accidents, in outrage for example, have been found, when despite there being “signs of serious recklessness”, the case is filed because the courts consider them “minor” and, therefore, lacking criminal responsibility, applying the loopholes left by the law in its interpretation.