Vilagarcía, October 10, 2024.- The subdelegate of the Government in Pontevedra, Abel Losada, informed today that the Traffic Subsector of the Civil Guard of the province of Pontevedra denounced, in the first half of this year 2024, a total of 1,787 drivers for misusing the mobile phone. In addition, another 144 complaints had to do with the handling of headphones and 6 more with the use of other audiovisual devices.
The subdelegate offered this data in the framework of the presentation of the special campaign that the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) is developing against distractions at the wheel throughout Spain, between the 7th and the 13th of this month. Losada visited in the N-640la, as it passed through Vilagarcía, a joint control of the Civil Guard and the Local Police, where he warned that “when driving attention must be on the road and not on the mobile phone, or any other device or object”. The campaign focuses on the most dangerous sections and for this reason the control took place in a crossing, space in which the action of the Civil Traffic Guard and the Local Police also converges.
The mayor, Alberto Varela, the councilor responsible for Traffic and Mobility, Tania García, the provincial head of the DGT, Paula Yubero, the lieutenant colonel of the Civil Traffic Guard, Fernando Tato, and the head of the Local Police of Vilagarcía, José Prego, also participated in the meeting.
Abel Losada thanked the City Council of Vilagarcía and the Local Police for their collaboration in this campaign, which in his words “demonstrates the involvement of this mayor, this local government and this Local Police in road safety”. He stressed that distractions are behind 31% of fatal accidents and that 76% of drivers recognize driving while being distracted by devices, food, drink, tobacco, etc. Also, according to data from the DGT, 23% acknowledge reading WhatsApp messages directly from the mobile while at the wheel.
Finally, the subdelegate of the Government indicated that “this same campaign last year in the province of Pontevedra involved the preventive control of 4,692 vehicles and the formalization of 839 complaints.
The mayor, for his part, stressed that “when we use the new technologies at the wheel we are not only putting ourselves at risk, but also the people who accompany us or the drivers who share the road”. Thus, he thanked the Government and the DGT for launching this awareness and control campaign and its presentation in the locality, while insisting on “not making the mistake of using the mobile while driving”.