The government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, has today presented the control and surveillance campaign on alcohol and other drugs that the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) of the Ministry of the Interior carries out during this week to reduce high-risk behaviors in both urban and interurban roads.
In the presentation, which was held at one of the checkpoints on the island of Gran Canaria, the government delegate was accompanied by the provincial head of the DGT in Las Palmas, Eva Canitrot, and by the provincial coordinator of the Association of Spinal Injuries and Major Physically Disabled Persons (ASPAYM), Ana Margarita Rodríguez.
Until December 22, the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard, together with the Local Police, will carry out traffic control and surveillance services to reduce the consumption of drugs by drivers, mainly alcohol, which remains the second most frequent concurrent cause in fatal traffic accidents on the roads (it was present in 13% of the accidents of 2023 throughout Spain).
“It is particularly important to raise awareness in these days before the Christmas holidays about the use we have to make of substances such as alcohol during the celebrations, especially those that are going to demand that we travel by car or motorcycle. In company dinners, in celebrations with friends and family, we have to be aware that, although we believe in full use of our faculties, with the intake of alcohol we multiply the risk of suffering an accident,” says the government delegate in the Canary Islands.
“It’s also important to send out the message that we have to take care of each other. That is, we have to try to prevent other people, some co-worker who has drunk at dinner, from taking the car. We have to try to stop our uncle or the cousin who has dined with us at Christmas from driving home if he has drunk. And, of course, we never have to get in the car that these people drive,” he adds.
Alcohol, with a blood concentration of 1.5 g/L, makes the risk of an accident for drivers approximately 20 times higher than in a sober state, also affecting a higher mortality, being a factor related to a worse prognosis in the injuries suffered.
Despite the fact that in 2023 there was a decrease in the detection of this substance in drivers who died in traffic accidents, alcohol remains the most detected substance, followed by cocaine and cannabis, which recorded an increase compared to 2022.
In 2023, the year in which 1,806 people died due to 101,306 road accidents throughout Spain, the majority age range of drivers with positive toxicological results was from 25 to 54 years - the majority driving a tourism or a motorcycle - and the deceased drivers with very predominantly positive toxicological results were men.
In the 18-34 age group, fatal accidents of drivers with positive toxicological results occurred more frequently on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, while in the age range of 55 to 64 years it was on working days and in the same distribution on all days in the other drivers.
In the 2023 Christmas campaign of the DGT, 188,301 checks were carried out throughout Spain, which resulted in 3,259 complaints, while in the Canary Islands there were 5,759 tests and 229 complaints.
Campaign “Driving is living together”
For this Christmas, the DGT has also launched the campaign “Driving is living together” For the media and social networks, where it emphasizes that the good behavior that is generally associated with the Christmas holidays (increasing donations, volunteering in social projects, people are more educated, more respectful and, ultimately, behave better) has to move to the road not only on these dates, but also during the rest of the year.