The subdelegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas, traveled to o Carballo, in Oleiros to present today the new special campaign of the DGT, which began this Monday and will extend until Sunday 17, to control the alcohol rate and the presence of drugs in drivers.
The objective of this campaign is to raise awareness about the risks of alcohol and drug consumption at the wheel since, according to the data provided by the ‘Report of toxicological investigations in fatal victims of traffic accidents of the year 2022’, the consumption of these substances at the wheel is present in a third of fatal accidents as a concurrent or causative factor and alcohol remains the substance most consumed by deceased drivers, followed by cocaine and cannabis.
In this regard, María Rivas recalled that the consumption of these substances, along with speed and not wearing a seatbelt is one of the main risk factors on the road: “At the wheel, the only really safe rate is 0.0 g/L.” Thus, the subdelegate appealed to the responsibility of the citizens in their behavior as drivers and drivers to “not put at risk our life and that of others” and thus “curb the number of deaths on our roads.”
On the occasion of the Christmas festivities, the campaign will have a special impact on the leisure areas related to these dates, many of them in urban areas, so it promotes the involvement of the municipalities and their local police to ensure the safety of all citizens, both drivers and pawns.
In this way, the subdelegate stressed the need to take extreme precautions at the wheel at this stage of festivities and called for prudence so as not to incur practices or habits that put driving ability at risk: “Simple measures like wearing a seat belt can halve the risk of death in the event of an accident.”
The special traffic operation carried out recently on the occasion of the Constitution Bridge left in Spain a figure of 18 deaths on the roads due to the large volume of displacements that are carried out on important dates, therefore, the subdelegate pointed out that “raising awareness, deterring and preventing are the pillars of all the campaigns that the Government launches to reinforce road safety with a single objective: to reduce to zero the deaths in traffic accidents”.
The last Autonomous Commission of Road Safety advanced that so far this year the Civil Traffic Guard carried out 700,000 alcohol tests and 8,000 drug consumption tests in Galicia. Of these, 11,300 alcohol tests tested positive as well as 277 drug tests. In addition, the Civil Guard opened prison proceedings for 1,400 drivers for having alcohol and blood drug indices constituting a crime.
In addition, in the same campaign carried out between 5 and 11 December last year in Galicia, in the province of A Coruña 12,312 drivers were controlled and 324 of which 208 were positive in alcohol, 18 of them considered a crime, and 116 in drugs.