Various studies conclude that the relationship between speed and road accidents is directly proportional. The higher the speed at which a vehicle travels, the higher the accident rate and severity of the injuries produced. A 50 km/h collision is equivalent to falling from the third floor, while a 120 km/h collision is equivalent to a fall from the 14th floor. An impact at 180 km/h has the same consequences as a fall from the ground 36.
Despite the consequences that may arise from an accident occurring at inappropriate speed, one in five traffic accidents with victims can be directly related to excessive speed. Hence the effort made by traffic managers to ensure that motorists respect the speed limits when driving.
Despite everything, inadequate speed is behind two out of every three sanctions imposed each year by the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT). In 2022, Traffic radars issued 3.7 million fines for speeding on the roads of their jurisdiction. Here you can consult the list of the 50 most ‘crowded’ radars of the DGT and their location.
Catalonia, which has transferred powers in matters of Traffic, is not far behind when it comes to hunting down drivers who exceed speed limits. In 2022, the 200 radars that the Servei Català de Trànsit (SCT) has placed on its roads – a fifth of which the DGT deploys throughout Spain, with the exception of Catalonia and the Basque Country – filed 758,659 complaints for speeding, according to SCT data obtained by the Catalan News Agency. In total, these cinemamometers raised 83 million euros.
The radar section of the AP-7 between Ulldecona and Amposta, in the province of Tarragona, once again heads the ranking of the cinemamometers that fine the most in Catalonia. Last year, this device photographed 59,036 drivers who violated the speed limit of 120 km/h. The figure is below the 67,582 motorists it caught in 2021, but it is still the one that imposes the most fines in Catalonia for speeding and the one that collects the most money: 6.6 million euros.
The radar located on C-31 in Castell d’Aro (Girona) also remains unchanged in second position, as in 2021, with 57,927 complaints made last year. The number of fines is very similar to that in 2021 (56,760) in a section where the speed is limited to 80 km/h.
In recent years, a considerable increase in complaints has been detected when passing through this kilometer point. Just five years ago, in 2018, this radar only reported a little less than a third of the current fines, specifically 16,401. In 2022, the cinemometer contributed 6.52 million euros to the Servei Català de Trànsit in sanctions.
Third place on the podium goes to another fixed radar in the province of Barcelona. This is the device installed at kilometer 42.6 of the C-17 in the town of Aiguafreda towards the Catalan capital, with 36,099 drivers hunted and 3.8 million collected. In the Osona region there is also another of the most active radars in Catalonia, the sixth in the global ranking. It is located on the same road, near Seva and in the direction of Vic, and in 2022 it sanctioned 21,656 drivers for a global collection of 2.24 million euros.
Next, we offer the list of the 10 most crowded radars in the SCT. Of these, four are in the province of Barcelona and another three in those of Tarragona. Two of the most active cinemometers are in the Girona region and only one, in Lleida.
It is striking that in the top-10 there are two radars that are located in the same city, Badalona. Both are on the same road, the C-31 highway, in a section where the maximum speed is limited to 80 km/h. One of them, heading north, accumulated 20,636 complaints in 2022 and the other, heading towards Barcelona, ??18,334. The collection of fines from these two devices totaled more than 4.3 million euros.
In total, the ten most active radars in Catalonia in 2022 contributed 33.6 million euros to the SCT, highlighting that only the first two in the ranking have already added more than 13 million. On the other hand, it is striking that there are up to three cinemometers that did not reach 100 sanctions in a whole year.
These three devices are the radar section of the C-66 in Sant Joan de Mollet (Girona), towards Corçà, with 52 fines; that of the N-260 in Pont de Bar (Lleida), with 69 offenders caught, and that of the B-124 near Castellar del Vallès, with only 10 drivers reported for speeding last year.
