On March 19, at 4:40 a.m., a terrible traffic accident occurred at kilometer 24 of the AP-4 highway, in Los Palacios (Seville), where the Rapid Action Group (GAR) of The Civil Guard had installed a control against drug trafficking. For reasons that are still unknown, a DAF XF 530 articulated truck with a trailer loaded with fruit and vegetable products did a scissor effect that ran over the vehicles and people who were there.
The incident caused six deaths – among them two meritorious officers – and five injuries. Although at first it was pointed out that the driver of the trailer was possibly drowsy, who tested negative for alcohol and drugs, all lines of investigation are still open, since there is still no “logical explanation” for what happened.
This was stated by the deputy prosecutor for Road Safety of Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla, Luis Carlos Rodríguez León, in an interview with Canal Sur Radio, in which he detailed that the investigations involve “many calculations of speed, force or displacement” of the vehicles involved; as well as checks of the signage installed by the agents at the road control.
According to the representative of the Public Ministry, what happened “does not agree” with the data collected so far. That is why he has asked to give “more time” to the professionals involved in the investigation, adding that the hypothesis that the truck driver was using a mobile phone while behind the wheel is being analyzed.
“It has not been ruled out yet because the telephone communications, both private and company, are being investigated. The same thing later, once the analysis has been done, it must also be ruled out,” said Rodríguez León, stating that it is necessary to explore “all the possibilities that the human mind can think of, to rule out options until we find something that, in some way, can help explain what has happened.”
It is important to remember that handling a mobile device while driving is very dangerous, so much so that in the last reform of the Traffic Law the deduction of points was raised to 6, which equates this violation to testing positive for drugs or driving with a of alcohol greater than 0.5 mg/l (0.3 mg/l for professionals and novices).
The DGT has calculated the time spent performing certain actions with the mobile phone and the meters traveled while traveling at 120 km/h. And the data is conclusive. If we write a WhatsApp for 20 seconds, the vehicle advances 600 meters ‘blindly’ and if we type within the browser or a phone number for 14 seconds, the distance traveled is 466 meters. Faster actions such as answering a phone call (8 seconds) or adjusting the radio (6 seconds) involve movements of 266 and 200 meters, respectively.
Despite awareness-raising actions about the danger of using devices while driving and the toughening of penalties, this infraction continues to be the distraction most committed by drivers. During the second week of last October, the DGT carried out a specific campaign to control distractions. The agents of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard controlled a total of 364,165 vehicles circulating on conventional roads and carried out 7,989 controls, in which they reported 6,631 drivers for carrying out actions that involve inattention while driving. Of the 6,719 complaints filed, 2,223 were for using the mobile phone by hand while driving.
While waiting for the investigation to be conclusive and shed light on the causes of such a tragic traffic accident, the driver, who was arrested and spent three days in provisional detention, still faces six alleged crimes of reckless homicide and three alleged more crimes of serious injuries due to recklessness.
