Pedro Blanco asks not to lower his guard in summer after the fall of the road accident in Galicia

The government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, called for not to lower his guard during the summer and to continue consolidating the downward trend of deaths on the roads of Galicia, in a period in which displacements increase very significantly. It did so during the presentation of Operation Summer 2025 of the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) in Galicia. He was accompanied by the deputy delegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas; the provincial head of Traffic of A Coruña and coordinator of the DGT in Galicia, Victoria Gómez Dobarro; the head of the Traffic Management Center of the Northwest-Cantabrian, Bruno Deschamps, and head of the Command of the Civil Guard of A Coruña, Fernando Pedreira.

Pedro Blanco highlighted the continuous and progressive decrease in deaths on the roads of Galicia, highlighting the 26% year-on-year decrease (from 50 to 37 people who died) on interurban roads comparing the data of the first half of 2024 with those of the current year. The delegate stressed the importance of this milestone because, while in the year before the trend was rising, by no less than 32%, "the data from 2025 show that we reversed the trend by counting 13 fewer people who died."

The delegate insisted on the importance for this change of trend of the shock plan launched by the Ministry of the Interior last summer, whose line was maintained for the rest of the year and also in recent months. “We were worried about what could happen last summer, but today the results of that crash plan are tangible and even those months of July and August confirmed that we were doing things well,” said Pedro Blanco.

In this sense, Pedro Blanco congratulated the agents of the Civil Traffic Guard and all the workers of the DGT in Galicia, as it was the second autonomous community where the accident fell the most. By provinces, where the lowest was in Pontevedra, with a decrease of 60%, followed by Ourense, where it decreased by 25%, to end with La Coruña, with 14.3% less. Lugo kept the same figures.

It is precisely these “hopeful data” that allow “a review of the forecasts and challenges for this campaign that we are dealing with today, although with the goal always set in the reduction of accidents and deaths, using the tools of prevention and awareness”. In this field, Pedro Blanco highlighted the special sensitivity that must be had with the so-called ‘vulnerable users’, those who are most exposed to serious injuries when an accident occurs, such as motorcyclists or pawns.

“This type of road users accounted for 30% of the deaths on the roads this year, a lower figure than that extracted from 2024, when they reached 42%,” said the delegate, who conveyed the Government’s commitment to continue protecting these people with special sensitivity. In parallel, he also insisted on prudence in speed and zero consumption of alcohol and other contraindicated substances when driving.


Operation Summer 2025

The forecasts for this first operation after the summer say that there will be 405,000 vehicles that will travel on the roads of Galicia between Friday and Sunday, mainly in the Atlantic provinces. These displacements must add up those shorter movements, thousands, that are made daily to go to the beach or leisure areas.

“As every year, we ask for caution,” said Pedro Blanco, “appealing for drivers to plan their trips, to take extreme care at the wheel and also road trips, because road safety cannot take holidays.” The delegate insisted that the important thing is to reach the destination, “without taking into account the time that in the mild” and without making any bad decision “that prevents us from enjoying our leisure and rest”.

To verify the safety of all these drivers, Operation Summer 2025 Traffic will have 700 civilian guards, 63 management center operators, 216 radars, 291 data collection stations, 45 meteorological stations, 359 variable message panels and 275 surveillance cameras, in addition to the Pegasus helicopter.

Through all these personnel and materials, two special surveillance campaigns will be carried out in the months of July and August. Specifically, between July 14 and 20 there will be a special alcohol and drug control campaign, and from August 4 to 10, a speed control campaign. With respect to vulnerable groups, it will be followed throughout the summer weekends with campaigns and preventive actions specific to motorcyclists and pawns, in an activity already begun in recent months.

Along with these specific campaigns, the monitoring will intensify at the key moments of the summer: weekends, changes of fortnight and month and on the bridges of July 25 and August 15 .