Spain will close by 2019, establishing a new record for the lowest number of fatalities in traffic accidents. The estimate of the Government is that the deceased in the roads reaches about 1,100, down from 1.188 people who left the life in the past year. Until now the best record came in 2015, when there was 1.131 deceased. The reduction of the maximum permitted speed of 100 to 90 kilometers per hour on the secondary roads is one of the main causes of the decrease in fatal accidents after several years of stagnation with a slight upturn of the deceased.
Without giving up one of the stimuli most effective, campaigns that show with all of its ugliness, the tragedy of the deaths in the asphalt, the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) has been given a reprieve this christmas. The occasion deserves it: 2019 will 2015 as the year with less deaths on roads since the beginning of the historical series of accidents in the sixties. “This year we have less. Less tears. Calls. Careers. Sirens. Less emergencies. Less orphans and less tragedies. Less absences. Because this year the number of road victims turns to be less,” is the message chosen at the end of the year.
road Deaths
-82%
1989 was the year with more deaths on roads from which there are records
5.940
6.000
5.000
4.241
4.000
3.000
1.729
2.000
(17 dec)
1.053
1.000
0
1990
95
00
05
10
15
19
Source: DGT.
THE COUNTRY
road Deaths
-82%
1989 was the year with more deaths on roads from which there are records
5.940
6.000
5.000
4.241
4.000
3.000
1.729
2.000
(17 dec)
1.053
1.000
0
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
2019
Source: DGT.
THE COUNTRY
road Deaths
-82%
1989 was the year with more deaths on roads from which there are records
5.940
6.000
5.000
4.241
4.000
3.000
1.729
2.000
(17 dec)
1.053
1.000
0
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
2019
Source: DGT.
THE COUNTRY
The count of fatalities on the 17th of December, the last day of which there are official figures, was 1.053 people, 95 least —decrease of 8%— that’s 1,148 with recognised in the same period of 2018. Since then there have been at least 25 deaths in the Special Operation of Traffic of Christmas. “After almost seven years that we have barely moved, everything points that it will reduce the number of deaths on roads over 5%. That is an outrage and mark a change of trend,” suggests Ramon Ledesma, advisor PONS Road Safety. In the Ministry of the Interior agree that the data are not the result of chance: “There is a consistency behind”. And it has first name and last name: Pere Navarro, the director General of Traffic since July of 2018, a position he played between 2004 and 2012. “His return has been noticed. Has become to bring the debate on road safety on the political agenda”, values Ledesma.
Few figures generate as much consensus as Navarro, the visionary who introduced the carnet by points in the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The result was immediate, with a gradual fall in the number of deaths between 2004 and 2011 (from 3.464 to 1.484). Waiting for the balance that the minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, take place this week, in the Government speak of the effect Navarro to sum up all the measures that have helped to make a qualitative leap.
The top of 90 km/h
The main, according to all experts, is the entry into force last January of the cap of 90 kilometers per hour, 7,000 kilometres of roads with a hard shoulder of 1.5 m width. Since then only allows movement to a maximum of 100 on the secondary roads that are separated by a median. “Without doubt, it is the key, and it has been noticed a lot in the summer”, to settle in the Government. The provisional data indicate: 220 people died in traffic accidents during the months of July and August, 40 less than last summer. A fall of 15% that, in the case of rural roads was 23% with 154 dead, the lowest of the historical series on secondary roads.
This type of roads accounted for 69% of fatalities in these two months (140), a 22% less than 2018. The frontal collisions were the most decreased since the entry into force of the new speed limit, with 17 deaths less, followed by side collisions and frontolaterales, with 11 less. “In the way of high-capacity accidents are less serious. Reduce the speed to 90 kilometers per hour, and have transferred the monitoring to these secondary roads have an immediate impact”, value Francisco Canes. The president of the Association DAY of Victims of Accidents claim a larger workforce of the Civil Guard as a deterrent. “Without surveillance people to relax” sentence.
Interior points ofstinan 9.100 agents to the attention and care of the traffic. And stresses that in the last year and a half have recovered 300 personnel. With the consequent increase of the controls of drugs and alcohol. When Mariano Rajoy won the general election of 2011 had 9.661 civil guards for this task. When he left The Moncloa had nearly 800 fewer.
The following reform draft that already has prepared the Government in functions is to reduce the speed from 50 to 30 kilometres per hour the maximum speed limit in city. Navarro intended to apply this year, but the interim Executive made it impossible. In 2018, there were 489 deaths on urban roads, of which 237 were pedestrians. The 66% was 65 years or more.
31 dead in Madrid in 2018
The general trend is downward, except in four autonomous communities in which the deceased in the road toll have increased as compared to 2018. Madrid is the one that has the worst numbers, with 31 deaths (46 to 77) according to data from the DGT on December 17. It follows Andalusia, where they increase from 161 last year to 190. In La Rioja also rise, from six to 15. In Basque Country, there were 36 fatalities in the mid of the month, five more than in the same previous period.
Francisco Canes, president of DIA, lacking in most controls in the metropolitan area of Madrid. “The powers of a Civil Guard, is limited to the M40, M50… The responsibility of the traffic often depends on local police. The emphasis is on what makes the Civil Guard, but there was no talk of the town Councils,” he observes.
