The government delegate in Extremadura, Francisco Mendoza, chaired today the meeting in which the next campaign of transport of tomato by road has been discussed with all the sectors involved. The meeting focused on analyzing compliance with the regulations that regulate the transport of goods by road and specifically, in one of its sections, the transport of tomato, and that establishes specific conditions to guarantee road safety and avoid possible traffic accidents.
The campaign will begin in the last week of July and will run until the beginning of October. During these dates, about 2 million tons of tomato will be transported on the roads of Extremadura, which will mean that about 100,000 trips will be made between farms and processing companies, (which will mean about 1,500 trips per day), so it is necessary to establish a control on the vehicles that carry out this transport to avoid that the loss of cargo or the spill of liquid, fundamentally, can cause incidents in traffic.
In global data during last year’s campaign, 1,343 vehicles were monitored and a 22% increase in the number of complaints has been detected, while the number of road incidents has been reduced by more than 25%. The number of reported vehicles has increased from 520 in 2021 to 635 in 2022 and the number of reported vehicles continues to increase, rising from 374 in 2021 to 428 in 2022, an increase of 14%.
The most frequent complaints continue to be those related to excess weight and the disposition of the load. Also significant have been the complaints made by the condition of the tyres and by the spillage of liquid to the roadway. Despite these data, it should be noted that there has been significant improvement in other types of complaints related to the condition of vehicles, which indicates that those responsible for transport have significantly improved the use of vehicles suitable for this transport.
In the case of incidents, for the first time a decrease has been detected, which has gone from 62 incidents in 2021 to 46 in 2022; which means a decrease of more than 25%. Most of these incidents occurred in the N-5 and A-5, but also in the A-58.
In this section, the DGT recommends a lot of prudence and precaution on the road to avoid possible accidents and the Traffic Sector of the Civil Guard recalled the mandatory compliance with the rules in the transport of tomatoes. The government delegate stressed in this regard the importance of load placement and the good condition of tyres.
In any case, the Delegation highlighted today the positive awareness appreciated in recent years among producers and carriers regarding the adoption of measures to improve the safety of these transports. “We believe that we move forward year after year and with these meetings we correct the deficiencies appreciated to avoid greater risks and have a campaign as safe as possible,” concluded Francisco Mendoza.