The deputy delegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas, met today at the Traffic Headquarters in Perillo the new Peripheral Team of Reconstruction of Traffic Accidents (EPRATs) that joined the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard in the province of A Coruña last month.
The subdelegate reported that in addition to the province of A Coruña, Pontevedra also has a team, which makes Galicia the second Community to have the EPRAT after Andalusia. Although the teams are based in A Coruña and Pontevedra, both will serve the roads of the entire community and will travel when requested by the Claims Investigation Teams (or Attested) or the judicial authorities in the course of an investigation.
María Rivas stressed that these teams act in accidents of special gravity or in those where the signs are scarce, in which “knowing how a serious traffic accident occurred is fundamental to the determination of the causes and responsibilities associated with the accident.” The subdelegate added that these investigations “allow to give certain and faster answers to the families of the victims of these accidents” and “ensure that the compensation and sanctions derived from this accident are not delayed in time.”
Training and experience
The EPRAT team of the province of A Coruña is formed by a corporal and two civil guards. In total three people, who combine a long professional experience in the Traffic Sector of Galicia and a specific training in this subject. In particular, all of them passed the University Course of Accident Reconstruction, taught by the University Center of the Civil Guard (CUGC), in collaboration with other external institutions.
The intervention of these teams is not immediate to the occurrence of road accidents, but will be later, supportive and complementary, to the Accident Investigation Teams (EIS) that daily and permanently attend to the accidents that occurred in the community road network.
This support is aimed at speed calculations, analysis of vehicle elements and the reconstruction of the accident. To carry out these tasks, the EPRAT personnel apply a methodology, both in the scenario of the road accident and in the study and analysis of the vehicles involved, more rigorous and complete, to obtain data and parameters in sufficient quantity and quality to achieve the desired results.