The Directorate General of Traffic this weekend launches its traditional summer awareness campaign focused on alcohol and the consequences with which people who cause a fatal traffic accident coexist. The reason that has led the body to focus the summer campaign on drinking and its incompatibility with driving is because in the last year the number of drivers with alcohol in the body has increased by 4 points in fatal traffic accidents. In 2019, the percentage was 25% and in 2022 it rose to 29%. When the road accidents took place at night and at the weekend, the percentage of drivers involved in fatal accidents with the presence of this drug increased by 7 percentage points compared to those registered in 2019.
In Aragon, in 2022 (according to data from the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences), distractions were the most frequent concurrent factor in fatal accidents, followed by alcohol consumption. According to IMLA, 33% of drivers who died in a traffic accident and who received toxicological tests had a positive result in the alcohol test, and 44.4% of drivers who died in a traffic accident and who received the respective tests, had a positive result in some type of psychoactive substance (alcohol and/or drugs and/or psychodrugs).
Under the slogan “When you kill someone on the road, you kill them every day of your life,” the campaign shows how risky behavior can cause your life to stop being yours and the sense of guilt that underlies it to haunt you every day after the sinister traffic.
The delegate of the Government of Spain in Aragon, Fernando Beltrán has visited this coming the Pyrenees-Ebro Valley Traffic Management Center of DGT to know the device of Operation Exit. “Although distractions continue to be the main factors of accident in the community, the General Directorate of Traffic has alerted us that the presence of alcohol in the blood in the people involved is increasing, a reality that we have to tackle in the first place by insisting that the only amount of consumption recommended for driving is zero, because if we are involved in a traffic accident for this cause we will turn away a guilt that will accompany us for the rest of our life,” said the delegate.
From 1 January 2023 to 31 May in Aragon, 21 people have died on interurban roads and another 63 people have been seriously injured, while on urban roads 4 people have died and another 76 have been seriously injured. The figure of 25 deaths is slightly lower than that recorded in the same period of the year 2022, when the total number of deaths was 28 people.
Of the total number of wounded hospitalized in urban areas in Aragon (76 people), the province of Zaragoza accounts for 87%. And of these 66 serious injuries that occurred in the province, 62 have been in the municipality of Zaragoza.
For months of the year, the month of April has recorded the largest serious accident in Aragon and the month of May the largest fatal accident.
The delegate has insisted on the problem of alcohol consumption and has asked for extreme caution when remembering that many accidents “can be easily avoided” if basic road safety standards are met. “Our fundamental objective is to reverse the trend in the number of deaths on roads, since the increase during the past year was very important,” said Beltrán.
For his part, the provincial head of Traffic in Zaragoza, José Antonio Mérida, has reiterated that each number of deaths “is a tragedy” and has recommended “to travel with the desire to enjoy, without haste and prudence, with zero alcohol at the wheel and without distractions”.
The mobility forecast for this Special Operation that begins at 3 p.m. is three hundred and fifteen thousand vehicle displacements. To cover this reality, we will have the maximum availability of the human resources of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard, the personnel of the Traffic Management Centers, helicopter patrols and workers in charge of the maintenance of equipment and the installation of measures on the road, with a view to facilitating mobility and fluidity on the roads.
Last summer’s campaign in 2022, 1,685,000 vehicles traveled through the community in the four special operations (July 1, August 1, August 15 and summer return).
As for the accident associated with the special operation 1 July 2022, there were 62 accidents, with one deceased, 7 hospitalized wounded and 17 light wounded. In the total of the summer campaign (the four special operations) there were 226 accidents, with 3 deaths, 12 serious injuries and 56 minor injuries.