The Civil Guard has arrested a 17-year-old minor who was driving a vehicle without a license. The car was involved in a fatal accident on the La Manga highway, near Los Belones. There were seven occupants in the car at the time, one of which has died.

The detainee is being held for the crimes of reckless homicide, abandoning the scene of the accident and driving without a license.

The accident took place during the early hours of last Thursday, 27 July. Several motorcycle officers and a team from the Traffic sector of the Guardia attended the scene where the found an abandoned and badly damaged on a curved section of the RM-12.

The vehicle had collided with the concrete barrier that separates the two carriageways. The force of the collision hurled the vehicle across to the metal safety barrier on the opposite side of the road after which it was propelled once again back into the central barrier. One occupant who was traveling in the trunk of the vehicle died at the scene.

The vehicle involved was a passenger car with a maximum capacity of five people, but, at the time of the accident, it was occupied by seven young people. As a result of the accident, six of them were unharmed, but considerable material damage was caused to the vehicle with the deceased person, who was inside the trunk of the car at the time of the multiple collisions against the traffic barrier,s dying from the impacts.

The civil guard provided first aid to the people involved, compiled the initial information, carried out a technical inspection at the scene of the accident and collected witness statements and evidence.

At first, it was not possible to determine who the driver of the damaged vehicle was or the identity of two of the occupants who accompanied him, all of whom had left the scene in a vehicle that stopped to assist with the accident.

A few hours later, the civil guards were able to locate the driver of the wrecked vehicle, who had returned to his home. The checks carried out confirmed that it was a 17-year-old male, who did not have a driving license.

The officers carried out the mandatory breathalyser tests on the driver, in which he returned a positive result of 0.14 and 0.13 milligrams of alcohol per litre of breath, with the maximum rate allowed for minors being 0.00 mg/litre.

Subsequently, because of his state of nervousness, he was subjected to a mandatory drug detection tests, yielding positive results for cannabis and amphetamines. In accordance with the established procedure, a salivary sample was obtained from the driver, which was sent to an accredited laboratory, arranged by the General Directorate of Traffic, to verify the presence of drugs in the body.

A drunk and drugged 17 year old arrested after fatal La Manga crash
A drunk and drugged 17 year old arrested after fatal La Manga crash

The Civil Guard has completed the first phase of the investigation of the accident with the arrest of the driver of the vehicle as the alleged perpetrator of the crimes of reckless homicide, driving a motor vehicle without ever having obtained a driving license and abandoning the scene of the accident.

The crime of homicide, in its modality of serious negligence committed using a motor vehicle or moped, included in the current Penal Code punishes with prison terms of 1 to 4 years and the deprivation of the right to drive motor vehicles and mopeds for a period of time of between 1 and 6 years.

The crime of driving a motor vehicle or moped without ever having obtained a permit or driving license, is included in article 384 of the Penal Code, as a crime against road safety, punishable alternatively with prison sentences of 3 to 6 months. , fine from 12 to 24 months or work for the benefit of the community from 31 to 90 days.

Meanwhile, the crime of abandoning the scene of the accident, is sanctioned with prison sentences from six months to four years and deprivation of the right to drive motor vehicles and mopeds from one to four years.