Spanish Roads: Safer than Ever
June 30th, 2010
The Royal Automobile Club of Cataluña (RACC) has revealed that Spain is at the forefront in Europe with regards to reducing the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents. Deaths on Spanish roads have been reduced by nearly 53%, against a European average of 40.1% and Miquel Nadal, director of the RACC, has declared the decrease “a success story”, but admits that there is still room for improvement.
Although Spain has more than met the target set in 2001 by the European Commission to reduce deaths from traffic accidents by 50%, achieving a 52.7% fall in 2009, the actual number of road deaths occurring in Spain is still higher than in many other European countries. Spanish figures show that there are 57 deaths per million inhabitants, 11 below the European average, but well above other countries such as Sweden with 38, the Netherlands with 41 and the United Kingdom with 43.
According to the General Department of Traffic (DGT), while all areas in Spain have seen fewer deaths on the road, it was the regions with less urban zones that recorded more deaths per million inhabitants. La Rioja is the region with the worst record, with 93 fatalities per million inhabitants, followed by Castilla y León (77), Castilla-La Mancha (74), Aragón (66), Galicia (66) and Navarra (51). In contrast, Madrid has the lowest rate with 16 deaths per million of the population, which, according to Nadal, is due to the fact that “many more people live in urban areas, which leads to more traffic jams and a general slowing down in road speeds.”
Overall, the RACC report highlights that the decline is a great achievement, considering that in 2001 there were 136 deaths per million, a performance they believe is largely thanks to the introduction of the penalty points system for driving licences. “It served to provide greater visibility to road safety policies, which we did not have before,” suggested Nadal, without underestimating the “many other measures” that have been introduced and contributed to the reduction in road deaths.
However, it’s not all good news on roads in Spain, accidents involving motorbikes and those under the age of 25 years, along with investments needed in the road infrastructure are other major challenges ahead. The number of motorcyclists killed in 2009 was 283, an increase of 23% from 2003. The RACC said that even though there has been an increase in motorcycle owners, there has equally been an increase in car ownership, which has seen a decline of 76% over the same period. And with regard to under 25′s, although the number of fatalities has seen the largest decrease of all age groups, 63.6%, it is still the group that experiences the most road deaths. Finally, road improvement is another aspect that can influence the reduction in accident figures and, although Spain has made efforts in the construction of new roads that come up to European standards, statistics show that investment in road maintenance is still substantially lower than that of the European Union average.
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