In the General Directorate of Traffic, all the alarms went off a few weeks ago after knowing the road accident data for the first quarter of 2024. In the first three months of the year, 261 people have died on interurban roads – 36 more than in the same year. period than in 2023—, 16% more, despite the fact that the normal variation in road accidents ranges between increases or decreases of 5%. Most of them related to speeding and alcohol consumption. “A truly alarming fact,” warned the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, during a press conference in which he announced that 95 new speed radars will be installed and preventive breathalyzer controls will be increased by 400,000.
The x-ray of accidents so far this year could not be more worrying. The deaths have increased more than the hospitalized wounded. Serious accidents involving alcohol and inappropriate speed have increased. All accidents, except run-overs, have increased. The number of people who have lost their lives on weekdays increases by 29% while the number of motorcyclists killed during the weekend increases by 43%. And by age, almost all of the increase in deaths occurred between 45 and 54 years of age —40 of the 61 deaths.
Faced with this panorama, for which no direct causes have been found, but rather a cluster of factors in a context in which road safety at the European level is worsening, the Minister of the Interior has announced that 95 new fixed points of entry will be installed throughout the year. speed control on roads, of which 60% will be section. With this increase of 12% there will be 763 radars that will control speed on Spanish roads at the end of the year. Furthermore, before December 31, 150 new agents from the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard will have joined, as promised by Grande-Marlaska, who has been accompanied by the director of the DGT, Pere Navarro.
He has also warned that there will be greater surveillance on highways and highways, where deaths have increased by 50% in this first quarter, while on conventional roads the increase has been 5%. Of particular concern is Andalusia and the Valencian Community, where the majority of deaths are concentrated. In both autonomous communities, the surveillance services of the Civil Guard will be increased by 50%. In the rest of the regions, as reported by the DGT, these surveillance services will “adapt to the accident rate that occurs on their roads.”
And faced with the increase in alcohol-related accidents, preventive blood alcohol controls will be increased by 400,000 to reach six million by the end of this year. Likewise, drug controls are increased by 20,000 to reach 120,000 carried out in December 2024.
The other fact that has all the alarms going on is the greater involvement of motorists in accidents. To this end, control and surveillance campaigns aimed at motorcyclists will be intensified on weekends between June and October, months in which the presence of this group is more frequent. As Grande-Marlaska has detailed, camouflaged motorcycles will be used in those sectors of the autonomous communities with the greatest presence of motorcyclists (Andalusia, Valencia, Galicia, Castilla y León, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands).
