The government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, the coordinator of the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) in the Canary Islands, Eva Canitrot, and the lieutenant colonel head of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard (ATGC) in the Canary Islands, Jesús Ángel Hernández, have today presented a package of measures with which the DGT wants to reduce the number of accidents in the archipelago and their lethality.
At a press conference held at the headquarters of the Government Delegation in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Anselmo Pestana, Eva Canitrot and Jesús Ángel Hernández have carried out an analysis of the traffic accident in the Canary Islands, explaining how the battery of measures that the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, presented on April 26 in Madrid will be applied in the Islands.
“One of the fundamental competences of every state is to guarantee the security of its citizens. In our case, the Government of Spain does not cease in its commitment to increase road safety and reduce road accidents to the minimum, this being also a consequence of the defense of the right to life and physical integrity that protects article 15 of our Constitution,” says the government delegate in the Canary Islands.
“The General Directorate of Traffic and the State Security Forces and Corps, particularly the Civil Guard and its Traffic Grouping, are very active in this effort. Their commitment to road safety is demonstrated by their daily work and also by the effort of supervision and study to adopt new measures that allow us to have safer road mobility. From the Government Delegation we support them and we recognize that work,” he adds.
Resurgence of road accidents in the Canary Islands in recent weeks
In a context of increased mobility and a worsening of road safety, also at European level, the Canary Islands has seen how since the beginning of April the number of deaths on its interurban roads has increased to reach 14 deaths so far this year, compared to the 8 deaths recorded from January to March, which meant 2 people less than in the same period of 2023.
The 14 deaths recorded on interurban roads in the Canary Islands from 1 January to 15 May 2024 are distributed equally between the two provinces (seven in Las Palmas and seven in Santa Cruz de Tenerife), with fatal accidents occurring on conventional roads.
According to the coordinator of the DGT in the Canary Islands, “these figures have to ignite the warning signs for the break in the downward trend that was being recorded in the archipelago, going from reducing the accident in the first quarter of the year to becoming one of the Autonomous Communities with an increase in the number of deceased people”.
“It is also important to note that the majority of deaths belong to vulnerable groups, registering the death of 8 motorcycle users and 2 pedestrians. In most of the accidents we have had in the Canary Islands there have been two concurrent factors: distractions and inadequate speed. It is about these two conditions that the General Directorate of Traffic will continue to warn drivers. You have to stay with all your senses attentive and attentive at the wheel and respect the speed limits,” says Eva Canitrot.
As reported by the minister of the interior, the new measures to reduce road accidents focus on eight axes: increased automated speed monitoring, greater surveillance on motorways and motorways, more alcohol and drug controls, strengthening the safety of motorists (Canary Islands is one of the territories with the greatest presence of motorists), intensification of surveillance on professional transport, and information, awareness and promotion of preventive culture.
This list is completed by two other axes: the net increase in the staff of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard throughout the country, as well as the collaboration with the ATGC to carry out a specific analysis of the accident that allows the promotion of territorial actions in this matter, specific in each Autonomous Community.
“One of the key aspects of our commitment to people’s safety is to ensure road safety. Therefore, it is very good news that the staff of the Traffic Group is strengthened, a staff that includes women and men always at the service of the citizens and that works with the DGT to reduce accidents on the roads,” says Lieutenant Colonel Jesús Ángel Hernández.
Adaptation to the Canary Islands of the measures of the Ministry of the Interior
In the archipelago, the effective presence on the roads and the visibility of the motorcyclists of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard will be guaranteed, while the service orders in all sectors of the ATGC based on the “Framework Instruction of Surveillance” of the General Director of Traffic will be updated.
New fixed speed control points will be installed on the roads, including section radars, increasing alcohol and drug controls, and intensifying control and surveillance campaigns aimed at motorcyclists and information campaigns.
The General Directorate of Traffic in the Canary Islands will also promote collaboration with the owners of the roads to identify sections where the safety of the users can be improved through infrastructure measures, and collaboration with the Municipalities and their Local Police to reduce accidents on urban roads.
Likewise, awareness of the problem of road accidents will be promoted, strengthening the Autonomous and Provincial Commissions on Traffic and Road Safety, with the participation of the different Public Administrations, and strengthening communications and dissemination of awareness messages adapted to the different vulnerable groups, to the sections with specific characteristics and sections of special accident.