Here's a letter to the editor from yesterday's Vanguardia.

Hunting down the people

On Saturday, November 8, I was the victim of one of the photographs that the Barcelona municipal police takes with its radar detectors situated strategically to catch the people who drive their cars with an excess of velocity. The location of this police vehicle was ridiculous (vergonyosa). It was at the entrance to Barcelona through the Plaza Glories coming in from Gerona. So: at the work zone on the freeway the limit was 50 km/h (30 mph) and I was going 105 (65 mph). After a short time I received the letter fining me 400 euros and, as if that weren't enough, I lost my license.

FERRAN MENESCAL
Barcelona

What an asshole! This jerk gets nailed doing 65 in a 30 and he has the unmitigated gall to bitch about it! In a work zone, no less, with workers out there doing, like, work (in Kansas so many jerks used to run over highway workers that now any fine you get in a work zone is doubled). Mr. Menescal, I'm GLAD you got fined 400 euros and I'm THRILLED they took your license away.

4000 people get killed every year in traffic accidents in Spain, and double that number are injured. The major causes of fatal accidents are drunk driving and reckless driving. That is, it's idiots like Mr. Menescal who drive recklessly, at more than double the speed limit in a work zone, who cause most of those thousands of deaths and injuries. I, personally, do not have enough courage to drive a car in Spain. I let my wife do it. She's a better driver than I am anyway.

Scofflaw attitudes like Mr. Menescal's are the cause of all this drunk and/or reckless driving that kills so many people around here. If Mr. Menescal wants to kill himself in a car wreck, that's his problem, but his rights end where my nose begins, and I sure don't want to be the poor bastard he would take out with him one of these days if his license hadn't been pulled. Let's see the cops crack down on these killer drivers who have no respect for the law or their fellow citizens.