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, the government delegate was accompanied by the provincial head of the DGT in Las Palmas, Eva Canitrot, and by the provincial head of the DGT in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Fulgencio Marín, as well as by the delegate in the Canary Islands of STOP Accidents, Zeltia Rodríguez.

Until December 21, 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 traffic accidents on the roads.

In particular, alcohol consumption was present in 12% of the accidents of the past 2024. At the same time, it was a concurrent factor in 28% of traffic accidents with fatalities, with 273 associated cases.

“Driving after drinking alcohol multiplies the risk of an accident by 2 to 15. And it is not only related to a greater accident, but also affects a greater mortality because it is a factor linked to a worse prognosis in the injuries suffered,” says the government delegate in the Canary Islands, who points out that “for this reason, it is particularly important to raise awareness in these days before the Christmas holidays about the consumption of substances such as alcohol during the celebrations, especially those that will require us to travel later by car or motorcycle.”

“Although we believe in the full use of our physical and mental faculties, with the intake of alcohol we are increasing the risk of suffering a sinister, even with the rates of alcohol within the legal margins allowed: the only safe rate is 0.0%,” emphasizes Anselmo Pestana, who adds that we must be consistent: “We must try to prevent other people who have drunk from taking the car, and in any case, never get into a vehicle with those people.”

Alcohol, the substance most consumed by deceased drivers

as can be seen from the Memory 2024 of toxicological findings in fatal victims of traffic accidents, of the total of 937 drivers killed in a traffic accident and subjected to autopsy and toxicological analysis, 452 showed positive results for alcohol, drugs of abuse and psychopharmaceuticals, alone or in combination.

Alcohol remains the substance most consumed by deceased drivers, followed by cocaine and cannabis and, thirdly, by psychoactive drugs.

In the Special Surveillance and Control Campaign carried out between July 14 and 20, 2025, 4,480 drivers were denounced by the agents of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard. Specifically, of the 210,957 tests carried out, 2,248 drivers were found to be positive for drugs and 2,232 for alcohol.