At the time of the accident, the vehicle was occupied by seven people and the person in the boot was killed.
– GUARDIA CIVIL
The Guardia Civil of the Region of Murcia has arrested a minor who was driving a vehicle without a licence and had an accident on the RM-12, at the height of Los Belones, in the municipality of Cartagena (Murcia), in which one of the seven occupants of the car was killed.
Specifically, the person in the boot died and the driver fled the scene of the accident. When he was identified and located hours later, the detainee tested positive for alcohol and drugs in his system.
The detainee is allegedly responsible for the crimes of reckless homicide, leaving the scene of the accident and driving without a licence, according to sources from the Benemérita in a statement.
The events took place during the early hours of last Thursday, July 27, on the conventional road RM-12, which joins the AP-7 with La Manga del Mar Menor, at the height of Los Belones, municipality of Cartagena, where a vehicle had a road accident and the Civil Guard was mobilized to clarify them.
Several patrols of Motorists and the Attestations Team of the Traffic Sector of the Benemérita moved to the scene and verified in situ that the road accident occurred when a car, while driving along a curved section of the RM-12, had an off-track to the left and hit the concrete median separating the two carriageways, with subsequent projection against metal safety barrier on the opposite side and was ejected again against the concrete median on the left side in the direction of Cartagena.
THE OCCUPANT IN THE BOOT DIED
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 traffic accident, six of them were unharmed, with considerable material damage to the vehicle and one person died, who was inside the boot of the car at the time of the various collisions with the road safety barriers.
The Civil Guards provided first aid to the people involved, collected initial information, carried out the technical-ocular inspection at the scene of the incident and collected testimonies, evidence, vestiges and clues to clarify the events that had occurred.
Initially, it was not possible to determine who the driver of the damaged car was, nor the identity of two of the occupants accompanying him, who were found to have left the scene in a vehicle that had stopped to assist in the accident.
A few hours later and as a result of the investigations carried out, the Civil Guards located the driver of the wrecked vehicle, who had apparently gone home. The checks carried out allowed them to verify that the driver was a 17-year-old male, who did not have a driving licence, as he had never obtained one.
The Civil Guards carried out the mandatory breathalyser tests on the driver, in which he gave a positive result of 0.14 and 0.13 milligrams of alcohol per litre of exhaled air, the maximum permitted level for minors being 0.00 mg/litre.
Subsequently, and after the officers noticed the state of nervousness in which he was, he was subjected to the mandatory tests for drugs, with positive results for cannabis and amphetamines.
In accordance with the established procedure, a saliva sample was taken from the driver and sent to an accredited laboratory, authorised by the Directorate General of Traffic, to check the first provisional indicative result of the presence of drugs in the body, while awaiting the result which will be communicated to the Provincial Traffic Headquarters in Murcia, for inclusion in the sanctioning file, in the event of confirmation of the positive result.
The Guardia Civil has completed the first phase of the investigation into the accident with the arrest of the driver of the vehicle as the alleged perpetrator of the offences of reckless homicide, driving a motor vehicle without ever having obtained a driving licence and leaving the scene of the accident.
The Guardia Civil recalled that the crime of homicide, in the form of gross negligence committed using a motor vehicle or moped, as set out in the current Penal Code, is punishable by prison sentences of 1 to 4 years and deprivation of the right to drive motor vehicles and mopeds for a period of between 1 and 6 years.
The offence of driving a motor vehicle or moped without ever having obtained a driving licence is included in Article 384 of the Penal Code, as an offence against road safety, punishable alternatively with a prison sentence of 3 to 6 months, a fine of 12 to 24 months or community service of 31 to 90 days.
For its part, the offence of leaving the scene of an accident, punishable under article 382bis of the Penal Code, is punishable by a prison sentence of six months to four years and deprivation of the right to drive motor vehicles and mopeds for one to four years, for any driver who, voluntarily and without risk to himself or a third party, leaves the scene of an accident in which one or more persons were killed or seriously injured.
The Guardia Civil has appealed to the public, as in this case, that when they witness or have knowledge of a traffic accident, they should take note of as many details as possible, especially the people involved, the type and characteristics of the vehicle, in particular its registration number, and inform the security forces, with the aim of facilitating the police investigation and preventing events such as these from going unpunished.
The detainee, the proceedings and the vehicle have been handed over to the Cartagena Magistrate’s Court and the Murcia Regional Prosecutor’s Office for Minors.