The subdelegate of the Government in Pontevedra, Abel Losada, presented this morning together with the provincial head of the General Directorate of Traffic in Pontevedra, Paula Yubero, and the head of the Traffic subsector of the Civil Guard in the province, Antonio Pitieira, the accident balance recorded on the roads of the province during the last months of July and August. A summer in which the province of Pontevedra recorded a record 2,807,733 vehicles with long distance travel, according to data from the Traffic Management Center, which is 11% more than last year.
It is the highest circulatory volume since 2019. Abel Losada stressed that three people died and a total of 180 accidents involving personal injury were recorded. These figures represent “a slight improvement” with respect to previous years. However, Losada stressed that “mortality in the province of Pontevedra during this summer period was a ‘two-wheeled mortality’”, since the three people who died this summer were riding a motorcycle or moped.
The subdelegate stressed that all of the fatalities were therefore vulnerable users who died in two very similar accidents, since in both cases there was invasion of the opposite lane. Thus, and second explained the subdelegate, the first fatal accident was recorded on August 1 in Arcos (Ponteareas), on the N-120 road, in which the pilot of the moped died, which invaded the opposite lane and collided with a tourism. The second fatal accident occurred on August 19 on the N-550 as it passed through the town hall of Redonda, when two young people traveling on a motorbike also invaded the opposite lane and collided against a truck. To the respect of this type of users, Abel Losada recalled that precisely this summer the Government Subdelegation, in collaboration with the DGT in the province, launched a specific information campaign aimed at the group of motorcyclists in which the Subsector of the Civil Traffic Guard is insisting especially, distributing informative brochures cautiously to us their controls on the roads and also in the motorcycle concentrations. “However, despite the good orientation of the campaign, we must continue efforts to protect this type of users who have a high vulnerability on the roads,” he said.
The subdelegate of the Government stressed that “the overall figures of the balance of the summer accident are slightly better than those registered in recent years”, since only 3 of the 15 fatalities that were recorded in the whole of Galicia occurred in the province of Pontevedra, so the mortality level of the province of Pontevedra is identical to that of Ourense and much lower than that of A Coruña. “But when we talk about mortal victims, there can be no complacency, so we must continue to call for prudence.” Likewise, and in a historical context, the number of people who died in the province during this summer is equivalent to that of previous years, except in 2020 when the negative peak of 9 people who died was reached.
On the other hand, in terms of the number of fatal accidents, there is a small improvement since this summer there were 2 compared to the 3 that had been occurring in previous years. The overall number of personal injury claims is 180, a figure also below the average of the last 5 years, which is 194. Likewise, 11 victims were seriously injured, compared to an average of the last five years, which is 19. For its part, the number of minor injuries was 270, a figure very similar to that of previous years. The subdelegate contextualized the data, “which are well slightly favorable in their absolute value, they must also be valued according to the record numbers of tourists, since a lot of them arrive and travel through our province by vehicle, as shown by that record of long distance trips.” Motorways and highways, the safest roads The balance reveals that there was no one deceased on the motorways and highways of the province, compared to the conventional roads —one lane by sense—, which are once again the most dangerous and therefore require more attentive driving. Statistics from this one show that almost 82% of accidents with personal injury occur on conventional roads, 7% on motorways and 5% on motorways.
The subdelegate stressed the importance of this data, “since most of the people who come to Galicia or the Galicians and Galicians who go outside do it very much through high-capacity roads such as the AP-9 and the La-55 and the La-52”. Although this summer the three people who died took place on national roads, Abel Losada stressed that “we are once again reviewing the accident of the last 5 years, it is clear once again that 43% of accidents with personal injury take place on roads belonging to the autonomous region, 29% on roads belonging to the State, 18% on roads belonging to the Provincial Council and 8% on roads belonging to the municipalities”. Losada pointed out that the greater sinistrality of the autonomous roads has a lot to do with the fact that most of the conventional network is owned by the Xunta; “in this I renounce to do the demagogy that I observe in other political leaders.” The subdelegate stressed that while 66 people lost their lives on Spanish motorways and highways during this summer, in the province of Pontevedra the balance is zero.
Regarding the conventional routes, he explained that there were 175 fatalities in the whole of Spain for three in our province, “therefore we can say that we are in an intermediate situation in the whole of Spain.” Finally, Abel Losada said that the global accident data for 2024 are in contrast to the “relatively good figures from this one you will see”. “In fact, 2024 is being a very negative year for the roads of the province, given that we have a total of 19 people deceased, the highest figure since 2019,” he explained. He also highlighted that 68.5% of these 19 people who lost their lives were vulnerable users, given that 8 were motorcyclists, 3 drove mopeds and 2 were pawns.