The government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, pointed out today the combination of investments in infrastructure, “zero tolerance” with which it violates the rules and strategic planning and training as axes to reduce victims on the roads of Galicia. He said this after the meeting of the Autonomous Commission of Traffic and Road Safety, which was held this morning in the Government Delegation.
Not respecting the first axis, the infrastructures, the government delegate pointed out that the investments of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda to improve and create new roads of its competence in Galicia reached the last five years to 777 million euros, of which half “is destined precisely the actions of improvement and conservation”. This investment also resulted in improvements in conflicting points of the road network and in the humanization of crossings, which gain priority year by year.
The second pillar of road safety is surveillance and sanction, in which the delegate insisted on the policy of “zero tolerance” with those who commit infractions on the roads. With respect to surveillance, the delegate detailed that in 2022 the agents of the Traffic Sector of the Civil Guard provided 37,696 aids on the Galician roads and elaborated 15,018 assaults through 46,633 patrols, in which they traveled 8.7 million kilometers of tracks.
With regard to the punitive activity, 2022 ended with 240,558 complaints for road safety violations; 843,221 alcolemia tests and 5,089 drug use. With respect to sanctions, the delegate noted that six out of ten complaints are for overspeed. He also said that, so far in 2023, the Civil Guard “detected about 5,000 Galicians and Galicians driving with drugs in their body and recorded an increase in penalties for the use of the mobile phone, with more than 4,200 so far this year.”
Finally, the government delegate placed strategic planning as the third axis of public action in road safety. In this regard, he indicated that the Government continues to implement the National Road Safety Strategy 2022-2030, as a national reference framework in this area. Within this strategy, he highlighted the advances in the incorporation of education in safe and sustainable mobility in the school curriculum and the milestone that “the new higher degree of Professional Training in safe and sustainable mobility can be completed”.
Accidentality in 2022
The Autonomous Commission of Road Safety studied the road accident data for the year 2022. In total, there were 90 victims in traffic accidents in Galicia. “There are 13 more than the previous year and in which we had to regret that in a single accident seven people had died,” explained the delegate. Pedro Blanco said that this year the data are reversing this rise: “Until yesterday we recorded eight fewer fatal accidents in Galicia than last year with three fewer deaths. 75 this year compared to 78 in 2022”. He also took the opportunity to call prudence to the wheel in front of the next festivities of the month of December.
With respect to last year’s accident, the delegate indicated that “last year’s type accident in Galicia was an exit on the road of a tourism of more than ten years old, driven by a man of more than 55 years, caused by a combination of overspeed and distractions and that it occurred on a conventional road, with a lane in each direction.” Pedro Blanco again warned of the concurrence of “human factors” in the fatal accidents.
Autonomous Traffic and Road Safety Commission
The committee chaired by the Government delegate involved the Ministry of Infrastructure and Mobility, Ethel Vázquez; the Government subdelegate in A Coruña, María Rivas; the head of the DGT in Galicia, Victoria Gómez; the head of the Traffic Sector of the Civil Guard of Galicia, Antonio Hidalgo; the director of the Traffic Management Center of the Northwest, Ramiro Martínez, and other heads of state, autonomous, provincial and local bodies.