The General Directorate of Traffic has launched today throughout the national territory, including Cantabria, a new edition of its specific control campaigns focused this time on speed monitoring as one of the key risk factors in road accidents.
Inadequate speed is the third most common concurrent factor in traffic accidents, especially in those with fatalities. In 2023 with 24-hour data within the DGT area, 211 fatal accidents were recorded in which this factor was present.
According to the Deputy Director General of Mobility and Technology Management of the DGT, Francisco José Ruiz Boada, “these figures show that compliance with speed limits is not only a legal obligation, but also a moral responsibility that contributes on the one hand to road safety, because it significantly reduces the harmfulness of the accident, to improve the environmental impact and ultimately to the well-being of all users who share the road, because it is important to remember… that on the road we are not alone”.
In particular, the campaign will be carried out from today Monday 15 and until next Sunday 21, through the agents of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard, as well as the other local police who join it, with the aim of controlling 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, all following the recommendations of international and European organizations that urge the agencies in charge of road safety of the different countries to monitor that the established speed limits are met.
In the case of Cantabria, the municipalities that have been invited to participate are Santander, Torrelavega, Camargo, El Astillero, Santa Cruz de Bezana, Los Corrales, Noja and Suances.
In this campaign carried out last year, between April 17 and 23, 21,975 vehicles were controlled in Cantabria, 680 of them (3%) being reported.
As this is a campaign also developed at European level by the association RoadPol (European Roads Policing Network), surveillance will be carried out not only in Spain but in all the countries that belong to that association.
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.
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It has been proven that speed not only affects the risk of being involved in a traffic accident, but also that, the faster it will be, the more difficult it will be to react in time to prevent the accident and the more serious the injuries produced as a result of it will be.
For this reason, with the aim of reducing the number, not only of fatal accidents but also of serious injuries, Traffic will install, during this year, 88 new radars, 60% of which will be of course. In addition, most will be placed on conventional roads, where 7 out of 10 fatal accidents occur.