From tomorrow Monday to next Sunday, April 23, the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) launches a new specific surveillance and control campaign focused on one of the key factors of road accidents: speed.
The campaign aims to control especially sections of risk associated with speed, as well as those points where the circulation exceeds the established limit and there is a high accident rate. This planning follows the recommendations of international and European organisations that urge the road safety agencies of the various countries to monitor that the established speed limits are met.
During the one developed in July last year, of the total number of vehicles controlled on the Andalusian roads, 4,936 drivers were offenders and, therefore, denounced for overspeed, which represents 5.2% of the total. 40.9% of the offending drivers were notified of the complaint at the time of being stopped and informed by the traffic agents.
Taking into account their preventive nature, drivers will be notified of the existence of controls, either through variable message panels or through circumstantial vertical signage when the road does not have such panels. The agents of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard, as well as the other Local and Regional Police who wish to join it, will be in charge of starting this campaign.
With regard to conventional roads, 7 out of 10 deaths on sinister roads take place on this type of road. In addition, since March 21, 2022, with the entry into force of the changes introduced in the Law on Traffic, Circulation of Motor Vehicles and Road Safety, passenger cars and motorcycles are not allowed to exceed the speed limits set on conventional roads when they overtake other vehicles.
European Project Baseline
The Directorate-General for Traffic has recently presented the results of the European Baseline Project, a road safety programme in which 18 countries have participated and which aims to adequately monitor the progress of road safety in the member countries through 8 key performance indicators related to the behaviour of people, vehicles, infrastructure and post-accident care.
With regard to speed, in Spain the level of compliance with the established speed limit varies depending on the type of track. While on motorways 63% of passenger cars drive at the permitted speed (high value compared to other countries), on motorways this percentage drops to 51%. In the case of conventional roads, compliance with the established speed limit is 43%, a low level, similar to that recorded by Belgium (46%).
On urban roads with a limit of 50km/h, the level of speed compliance by passenger cars is 65%, the third highest value of the 13 countries with which we share a limit.
For its part, in the streets of 30 km/h, the compliance level is 32%, the highest value of the three countries for which data are available. It should also be noted that the average speed of passenger cars on 30th Street is 11 km/h lower than that on 50th Street (36 km/h versus 47 km/h), a difference that greatly reduces the risk of a fatal or serious accident.