Guevara delivers to eleven municipalities in the Region 680 index tests for the control of drug consumption during driving in the urban environment

• After today's event, there are already 2,805 drug kits delivered by the DGT to the municipalities of the Region of Murcia

January 18, 2024. The delegate of the Government, Mariola Guevara, and the Provincial Head of Traffic, Virginia Jerez, delivered this morning to eleven municipalities of the Region of Murcia 680 index kits for the control of drug consumption in the urban area.

“What we intend with this collaboration with the municipalities is to insist on the objective of zero tolerance in the consumption of alcohol and drugs among drivers, because the statistics are dramatic in this regard, since 57% of drivers who died in interurban road in 2023 drove under the effects of alcohol and/or drugs, and 50% of pedestrians who died and were analyzed were positive in the presence of toxins. In urban areas, 60% of the deceased drivers had consumed alcohol and/or drugs,” explained Guevara during the event held at the Provincial Traffic Headquarters.

After today’s delivery, there are already a total of 2805 kits of this type provided to local police in the Region of Murcia since 2016 with the intention of reducing drug consumption at the wheel by providing means of control to agents in charge of traffic surveillance in urban roads, since the treatment of these risky behaviors needs a comprehensive approach and cooperation between the different administrations.

The Spanish Road Safety Strategy 2030, whose objectives are to reduce by 50% the number of people killed and seriously injured in road accidents, identifies as a strategic area “zero tolerance with the most risky behaviors”, in line with the approach of the integrated insurance system and in accordance with the parameters of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, which addresses the need for surveillance and control activities to reduce the impact of the most risky behaviors. In this sense, increasing the impact of surveillance through better planning and enhancing the surveillance of high-risk behaviors through the application of new technologies are priority lines of action.

In this way, another of the tools used to discourage the consumption of alcohol and drugs during driving that increases the impact of surveillance on the roads is implemented through the annual calendar of surveillance and control campaigns of different topics related to the main risk factors published annually by the DGT.

The annual programming of 2024 includes two campaigns aimed at controlling alcohol and drug consumption on urban and interurban roads. The first of these will take place in the week of 19 to 25 August, while the second will take place in the month of December, between 16 and 22.

In the last campaign of control and surveillance of alcohol and drug consumption during driving carried out in December 2023, of the total of 10,897 alcohol tests that were carried out throughout the Region, 4,186 were carried out by the local police of the 28 municipalities that joined it, denouncing 2% of the controlled drivers. As for drug use, of the total of 437 tests carried out, 205 were carried out by the local police of the 15 municipalities that carried out this type of test, reporting 47% of drivers.

The implementation of these controls is not timely during the campaigns, but the agents in charge of traffic surveillance and control carry out these consumption detection tests at different checkpoints throughout the year, and thus, in interurban roads, during the past 2023 164,880 alcohol tests were carried out, resulting in positive 2,398 (1.45%) and 3,444 drug tests of which 47.68% were positive.

The training of the agents of the authority who have to apply the sanctioning regulations to the infringing behaviors linked to the consumption of alcohol and drugs is fundamental, not only because they have to be aware of the procedures to be followed in the realization of the tests, but because they are the channel of awareness to the citizen, since they will inform the driver of the obligation to undergo the drug test and of the realization of the same. Refusal is a crime that carries a prison sentence of 6 months to 1 year and, deprivation of the right to drive for 1 to 4 years.