A Hero Hit with A €100 Ticket!
Miguel Guillén, a SAMU emergency technician, thought he was doing his job… but instead, he got slapped with a speeding fine! The EMT was racing to a cardiac arrest call when he was clocked at 88 km/h on the A-77 – a 70 km/h zone – and now faces a €100 penalty.
“I was going fast because it was an emergency! How can this make sense?” Guillén raged. Shocked and frustrated, he says the fine is “incomprehensible” – and he’s not alone in feeling the heat of bureaucracy.
The drama started when photos of the ambulance caught by a radar landed in his mailbox. But it didn’t stop there. The fine bounced him around from the rental company that owns the ambulance to the Regional Ministry of Health, and finally to the Traffic Department, all before he could even appeal it.
“It’s absurd! I have to take my free time to sort this out. No other emergency service workers go through this,” Guillén complained.
So, can an ambulance driver even be fined? According to Article 67 of the Traffic Regulations, emergency vehicles have priority and may exceed speed limits when on duty – as long as they take extreme care at intersections and don’t endanger others.
Despite the clear rules, Guillén says the Administration seems clueless, treating life-saving work like a regular traffic violation.
As the EMT grapples with red tape, the real question is: should a hero saving a life be punished for doing his job?
