The Traffic Civil Guard draws up a report for an alleged crime against road safety after having detected the vehicle driven by the president of the Ourense Provincial Council and the provincial PP, José Manuel Baltar, at 215 kilometers per hour last Sunday, near the Zamora municipality of Asturianos, sources close to the investigations inform elDiario.es.
The agents stopped the car on the aforementioned section of the A-52, also known as the Rías Baixas Highway, after six in the afternoon, after detecting speeding by a radar. The A-52 connects Galicia with Castilla-León, connecting the provinces of Pontevedra, Ourense and Zamora with the A-6. Provincial Council sources affirm that Baltar was driving in the direction of Madrid because he had meetings on Monday morning in the capital.
The same official sources of the body headed by Baltar assured elDiario.es on Tuesday night that the car belongs to the Ourense Provincial Council and that the politician was sanctioned on the spot with a fine of 600 euros and six points, as well as that the legal services of the Provincial Council would proceed to appeal through administrative channels. On Wednesday morning, the Provincial Council rectified and affirmed that the legal services will not appeal the sanction, attributing the initial communication to an error. That official spokesperson assures that Baltar has paid the fine this Wednesday morning, hours after elDiario.es revealed the incident.
The president of the PP of Ourense has rushed to pay the penalty before being notified of the instruction for an alleged crime against road safety. The procedure for possible crime will be brought to the attention of the court and will be communicated to Baltar shortly. In the event that the court appreciates the evidence of crime that the Civil Guard will inform it about, the administrative sanction process will stop.
The agents immediately drew up an administrative complaint bulletin that they delivered to Baltar on the spot. The 215 kilometers to which the radar indicated that Baltar was circulating placed the events in what the agents call a gray zone, that is, in doubt as to whether it is an excess of speed that constitutes a crime or only reaches a strong sanction. For this reason, the civil guards proceeded to notify the opening of the administrative process while waiting to determine if there was a crime. Subsequently, and after applying the possible margin of error in the radar of 5% of the total speed detected, a report was opened for a possible criminal offense for having exceeded the speed allowed in the vehicle by more than 80 kilometers per hour. section, explain the sources of elDiario.es.
The procedure for possible crime will be brought to the attention of the court and Baltar will be notified shortly. In the event that the court appreciates the evidence of crime that the Civil Guard will inform it about, the administrative process will stop pending the resolution of the criminal investigation.
The president of the Ourense Provincial Council did not identify himself as such when the agents stopped him. The guards did not carry out the breathalyzer or drug test because this is carried out whenever there is an accident and only if symptoms are observed in the driver in the event that there has not been an accident, the sources consulted specify.
José Manuel Baltar has been president of the Ourense Provincial Council since February 2012, more than a decade ago. He replaced his father, José Luis Baltar, a strong man of the Galician PP for decades. Baltar Jr. has been president of the PP of Ourense since 2010. In 2021 he revalidated his leadership in the party at the provincial level with 99.2% of the 662 votes cast. Reckless driving is punishable by up to two years in prison if it has not put people’s lives at specific risk.
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