• The government delegate in Cantabria has visited the facilities of the Provincial Traffic Headquarters in Santander together with its head, José Miguel Tolosa

The government delegate in Cantabria, Pedro Casares, highlighted the “proximity” of the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) to the citizens of Cantabria with an average of 2,500 face-to-face attentions each month in the offices of the Provincial Traffic Headquarters in Santander, in addition to electronic procedures through the web and mobile application.

In addition, Casares has valued the “commitment” with the “priority and personalized” attention to people over 65 years old, who can go without an appointment to make their démarches from 8.30 to 11.00 hours.

The government delegate in Cantabria visited on Monday the offices located in Calle Lábaro de Santander together with the provincial director of Traffic, José Miguel Tolosa, with whom he has addressed both the work of vehicle management, driving licences or processing fines, and the “enormous task of awareness and prevention” that the DGT develops in the community.

He has indicated that a sample of the “magnitude” of the work carried out by this State agency in Cantabria is evidenced by the data of vehicles and drivers in the region, specifically more than 450,000 vehicles registered and more than 360,000 drivers.

Regarding the management of fines, the delegate has detailed that, with closed data from 2024, in Cantabria 77,000 complaints were filed for traffic violations that represent 36% less than in the previous year (2023).

2024, “RECORD YEAR” IN EXAMS

Casares and Tolosa have also analyzed the data of the driving tests, both theoretical and practical, carried out in Cantabria and have extolled that 2024 “was a record year”.

The circulation exams last year amounted to 14,600, “the highest figure that the DGT has carried out in Cantabria, and to which more than 14,000 theoretical tests were also added at the headquarters of Santander, Laredo and Torrelavega.

At this point, they have addressed the situation of the staff of examiners that currently consists of eight people and, although there are still more than 4,000 people on the stock exchange pending the theoretical examination, they have detailed that it deals with a figure “that in practice is lower”.

The fact is that, they have explained, it must be taken into account that young people can take the theoretical exam with 17 years but not the practical exam, for which they must have reached the age of majority; there are also those who take the theoretical one summer and wait for the next to perform the practical, and there are “other factors” that make “the number of people who are really waiting is smaller”.

In addition, both the delegate and the provincial head of Traffic have highlighted the “commitment” of the Government of Spain and the DGT to “lower these figures” because it is a situation that occurs throughout the country and, in the case of Cantabria, has advanced that next week a new examiner will be incorporated.

In this way, there will be a staff of nine examiners and, in addition, “more reinforcement” has been requested and soon another interim examiner and a more itinerant one will arrive, which will give “a push” to that “waiting bag” and Cantabria will be “in the ratios” that the DGT marks nationally, which is 21 examiners per million inhabitants.

WINTER ROAD PLAN AND RADAR OF SALTACABALLO

In another order of matters, Casares has advanced that the Government Delegation is already working together with the DGT, the Civil Guard, the Road Demarcation and the regional government in the winter road plan that will be implemented to guarantee road safety in the face of bad weather.

Likewise, he has detailed that he has discussed with the provincial head of Traffic the operation of the new section radar on the A-8 at the height of Saltacaballo that began operating in August but without sanctioning and since September 6 is fully operational.

Tolosa has indicated that, although the data of sanctions interposed by this new radar are not yet available, “a more homogeneous speed” is perceived in all vehicles and it has been possible to eliminate “the peaks of speed of some that were much faster and braked when arriving at the fixed radar, a situation that also caused sinistrations in the area and caused retention problems”.

With the installation of this section radar, the speed was also raised to 100 kilometers per hour and, even so, thanks to this homogenization of the speed, the accident rate in the area has been significantly reduced.