Cuenca.- The General Directorate of Traffic launches a new traffic campaign between 8 and 14 May 2023 in the province of Cuenca, focused on vulnerable users.
The fundamental objective of this campaign is to reduce the accident rate among vulnerable users in the province of Cuenca, and to give them visibility, particularly on conventional roads, where they are also present and are susceptible, in the event of an accident, to more serious injuries, or even fatalities, due to the speed at which motorized vehicles circulate.
With this campaign, the Directorate General of Traffic intends to remember and raise awareness about the traffic rules that affect this type of users.
To this end, the agents of the Traffic Subsector of Cuenca will increase the surveillance on vulnerable users on conventional roads.
To this end, “the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard will monitor compliance with the rules by this type of users at the roadside,” as announced the Chief Captain of the Traffic Subsector of the Civil Guard, Angel Medina, who recalled that they must also be complied with “by those who interact with them, in addition to publicizing the importance of respect for them.”
For her part, the Government’s subdelegate in Cuenca, Mª Luz Fernández, has indicated that the need to “raise awareness about the vulnerability of users is an essential objective in order to reduce accidents, and to do this we must also raise awareness among other users of the roads about the high exposure to risk of the most vulnerable”.
VULNERABLE USERS
Pedestrians, cyclists, moped and motorcycle users, as well as Personal Mobility Vehicle (VMP) users, are considered vulnerable users. This is because, in the event of an accident, they receive the impact directly on their body, unlike users of other types of vehicles, such as passenger cars, which are protected by the vehicle itself.
Therefore, “vulnerable users are more exposed to the risk and the severity of injuries in case of an accident is noticeably greater”, said the provincial head of Traffic, Ana Zúñiga, who recalled that “we are all vulnerable users at some point”.
In good weather, the number of vulnerable users increases, since weather conditions tend to favor walking, motorcycle or bike trips.
ROAD ACCIDENT DATA: VULNERABLE USERS
According to the provisional road accident balance of 2022, at the national level, vulnerable deaths were reduced by 5% in 2022. In the global count, 422 vulnerable users died, 22 less than in 2019.
This decline has occurred significantly in motorcyclists, with 251 deaths, 35 less than in 2019.
Pedestrian fatalities increased, 126 in 2022 compared to 118 in 2019, which means that 1 in 10 road fatalities were pedestrians.
More than half of those killed were on motorways and motorways (58, five more than in 2019). More than 3 out of 10 people died on these fast tracks when they had got out of the vehicle. Only 8 of the 126 deceased pedestrians were wearing reflective clothing.
There has been an increase in the number of cyclists who have died. In total, 44 bicycle users have died, 4 more than in 2019. At the provincial level, 3 motorcyclists died in 2022, which represents 14% of the total deaths. In 2022 no pedestrians, cyclists or VMP users died in the province of Cuenca. However, vulnerable users accounted for 31% (20) of all hospitalized injuries (+24 hours) in 2022: 15% motorcyclists (10), 6% pedestrians (4), 5% cyclists (3).
Between 2017 and 2022, the number of vulnerable deaths amounted to 23, 25% of the total number of deaths, being half (12) of these pedestrians and 40% (9) motorcyclists. 48% of vulnerable users who died in this period (11) were on conventional routes.
The number of wounded hospitalized during this period amounts to 105, which is almost 40%, more than 60% of these being motorcycle users.
So far this year, 3 motorcyclists have died, all on conventional roads, 43% of the total number of deaths so far amounting to 7.