58 cyclists run over in Spain at 2016, the government is committed to studying the reform of the penal code

Last Thursday the Minister of Justice Rafael Catalá informed that they were going to study a reform of the Penal Code to avoid that a person who runs over a cyclist and flee is not condemned.

This is the case of Oscar Bautista, a cyclist who died in 2013 when he was riding a bicycle and the driver who ran him away fled and today he continues without conviction.

The Minister of Justice, Rafael Catalá, met at the Ministry's headquarters with Anna González, widow of Óscar Bautista, a cyclist who was killed by a truck in October by 2013. Gonzalez has delivered the most 180.000 signatures collected through the Change.org platform, with which the reform of the articles of the Criminal Code that regulate homicide due to imprudence and the omission of the duty of relief

Anna Gonzalez, the widow of the deceased, has obtained 188.000 signatures in the initiative #porunaleyjusta to get the government to take action on the matter and thus modify the penal code to prevent cases like this from happening again.

"I ask politicians not to hold back now, not to be afraid and look askance to see who takes the first step, they all have to take it at the same time. And to the cyclists who do not abandon me because we have come very far thanks to them. There is little left but you have to keep pressing” Anna commented to RTVE in an interview.

Catalá has committed to study If, when there is a serious breach of the rules of the road, as has happened in this case, it would be possible to improve its qualification within the imprudence classified as serious.

The minister also showed willingness to review whether the concept of omission of the duty of distress, as it is currently typified, is insufficient for caring for victims of traffic accidents, given the special risk involved in driving, and in If so, introduce an obligation for additional assistance, especially in the case of the death of the injured person.

In this way, the circumstance could be avoided, as the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court has stated, that when the victim's instantaneous death occurs, as in the case of Óscar Bautista, there can be no crime of omission of the duty of assistance, since it is an impossible crime for not having a living person in a situation of helplessness

You can consult the press release sent by the ministry at this link

Photo: abc Sevilla