Goodbye nasty sleeping policemen!

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God knows they’re everywhere - those ridiculous barriers to motorised progress, the vicious sleeping policemen, known in Spanish as “Paso de peatones elevados” or “Elevated Pedestrian Crossings”. See Turre main street for some good examples.

Well, as from last Thursday, the Ministerio de Fomento has issued a decree, binding in all of Spain, on the proper construction of these menaces. The maximum permitted height is 10 cm, and the ramp should be between 1 and 2.5 metres long, depending upon the eventual height of the centre arc.

The new decree also regulates those nailed-down strips of plastic (lomos de asno) on the road that slow you down. The maximum height is now 7cm.

It is thought that very few of these installations in Almería correspond to the new law. The interesting things is, according to legal sources consulted by La Voz de Almería, is that if you believe one of these things has caused damage to your car, and it is outside legal parameters, you can take the town hall to court for the repairs. One of the lomos in Turre gave me a puncture once from a nail sticking out of it - if it happened now I’d be straight down the courts, as they would not be considered to be part of the road, but an “illegal barrier to progress” - roughly equivalent to tipping a lorry load of sand in the middle of the road, and subjecting the road owner to the same fines.

So now you know. If the exhaust comes off your car because of one of these menaces, sue. I’m normally against vindictive or money grabbing lawsuits, but I’ll make an exception in this case.

Rating 3.00 out of 5

One Response to “Goodbye nasty sleeping policemen!”

Charles Butler Says:
November 5th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
The first one they put in El Zapillo. Didn’t paint it, put up no sign to indicate it was there. The first gouges in the road were about four metres downstream.