The special device of the Mossos d’Esquadra on the occasion of the New Year’s Eve festivities has resulted in the arrest of 35 people in Catalonia, of which 12 for crimes of gender violence or violence in the home, 11 related with crimes against property, one for crimes of injuries, one for crimes against sexual freedom and another 10 for other acts.

The device started at 10:00 p.m. and ended at 10:00 a.m. this morning. The operation has had the collaboration and coordination of local police forces throughout the territory. In total, 3,186 Mossos agents have been distributed throughout the country, with the aim of guaranteeing citizen security, public order and mobility on the Catalan road network.

Precisely regarding traffic, a total of 49 breathalyzer controls have been carried out throughout Catalonia. In these, a total of 1,401 breathalyzer readings have been carried out, in which 51 drivers have been reported by administrative means and 24 have been by criminal means. During the controls, 18 drug readings were also carried out, 14 of which were positive.

During the operation, there was news of a fatality, the first in 2024, who would be a 21-year-old young man who died after an accident on the Litoral ring road in Barcelona, ??according to the Guardia Urbana. In the same accident, there were three injuries, one seriously and two slightly. Yesterday, a few hours before the turn of the year, around 7:00 p.m. on the 31st, three people died, two of them minors, in an accident that occurred in the town of Palau-saverdera, in the Alt Empordà region.

With yesterday’s victims, the year closed with 152 fatalities in 135 accidents on Catalan roads. According to Interior, compared to 2019, there has been a 13% reduction in fatalities on Catalan roads, since 175 deaths were recorded. As for the group of vulnerable groups, motorcyclists, pedestrians and cyclists, they account for almost half of the fatalities (46.3%) on Catalan roads. This 2023, 53 motorcyclists, 12 pedestrians and 4 cyclists have died.

The AP-7, with 15 deaths, is the road that accumulates the most fatal accidents in 2023, although the reduction in fatalities on this road is consolidated compared to last year, 37.5% less, when there were 24 deaths. This year’s death toll is the same as in 2019, before the tolls were released. The rest of the roads with the highest accident rate are distributed on the following roads: A-2 (8 deaths), N-II (7 deaths), N-340 (6 deaths) and C-32, C-37 and C-55 ( 5 deaths each).

During this New Year’s Eve night, the Firefighters attended 2 services for chimney fires in Puigcerdà and in Santa Coloma de Queralt.

At 5:45 p.m., the Firefighters were alerted to a fire in the chimney of a three-story house on Doctor Andreu street in Puigcerdà. Two crews moved and located the fire on the third floor. The first checks with a thermal camera were positive in an inaccessible point of the false parquet ceiling, although no person was injured.

In Santa Coloma de Queralt, the Firefighters also worked with 5 crews to extinguish another chimney fire on Castell Street in a two-story house. The time of the warning was 00:29 and to extinguish it they launched water lines, soaked and checked that everything was correct. There have been no injuries.

They have also had to act in 7 services related to container fires, several services related to very minor house fires, as well as the fire in a brick factory in Castellet and la Gornal, for which 2 crews were activated and, After an hour, they were able to consider it extinguished.

The Generalitat Firefighters also had to work on the fire in a barracks in Bisbal del Penedès where they sent 2 crews and were able to extinguish it without further damage. And they were also activated with 2 crews due to some dry bushes that were burning in La Rápita.

The 112 emergency telephone number has received 5,943 calls during New Year’s Eve until this Monday at 9 a.m., which represents 1,060 more calls compared to a year ago. The 5,943 calls tonight were to warn of 4,166 incidents related to the celebration of the party (one incident can cause several warning calls).

32.48% of the calls (1,353) were to request healthcare assistance; followed by 18.72% (780 calls) for alerting about attacks; 13.27% (553 calls) for uncivil actions and 11.45% (477 calls) for security problems. 4.10% (171 calls) were to warn of fires and rescues of people and 6.29% (262 calls) were for robberies.