At the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), all the alarms went off after learning the accident data on the road for the first quarter of 2024. Since the beginning of the year, 261 people have died on interurban roads; 16% more than during the same period in 2023, despite the fact that the normal variation in road accidents fluctuates in increases or decreases of 5%. And in the majority of accidents, excessive speed or alcohol consumption was present. To find a solution “urgently” to the problem, the Ministry of the Interior will install 95 new radars and will increase by 400,000 preventive blood alcohol checks, as announced yesterday by its head, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
Neither the minister nor the director of the DGT, Pere Navarro, specified what was the main cause of this unusual increase in road deaths. But the x-ray of the accident rate that leaves the first three months of the year could not be more “worrying”. The dead have increased more than the wounded hospitalized. Serious accidents involving alcohol and inappropriate speed have increased. All accidents, except collisions, have increased. The number of people who have lost their lives on weekdays has increased by 29%, while the number of motorists killed during the weekend has grown by 43%. And by age, almost all of the increase in deaths is between the ages of 45 and 54.
The measures announced yesterday will be implemented immediately. Before the end of the year, Spanish roads will have 95 new fixed speed control points, of which 60% will be in sections – those located at different points that calculate the average speed of each vehicle. With this 12% increase, there will be 763 fixed radars spread across the whole geography. In addition, as promised by the Minister of the Interior, 150 new agents will join the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard before December 31.
In order to try to reduce the consumption of alcohol and drugs while driving, the Interior has ordered six million preventive blood alcohol tests to be carried out throughout the year, 400,000 more than last year. With regard to drugs, controls are increased by 20,000 to reach 120,000 carried out in December 2024.
They are particularly concerned about the data on deaths in Andalusia and the Valencian Community. In both regions, vigilance will be strengthened on motorways and motorways, where deaths have increased by 50% during this first quarter, while on conventional roads the increase has been by 5%. In the rest of the communities, these surveillance services will be “adapted to the number of accidents on their roads”.
There is another fact that confuses all the authorities. At the beginning of the year, at the same headquarters of the DGT, they were surprised that – by the end of 2024 – 25% of those killed were wearing seat belts. Well, in the first trimester, 34% of the dead were not wearing it.
