Spanish road deaths fall by a fifth in 2008


New figures released by Spain's Dirección General de Tráfico show a drop of one fifth in road fatalities last year. 2,182 people were killed in 2008, some 559 fewer than the previous year.

To put the figure in context, Spain has a similar population of road vehicles as the UK, where the most recent annual figure for road deaths stands at 2,946.

Over the past 15 years Spain has more than halved its annual total of road deaths despite rapid traffic growth, while the UK has seen a reduction of around 20%.

The Association of British Drivers claims the strong improvement in Spain is due to greater investment in safety measures. Spokesman Nigel Humphries says, “Spain, unlike the UK has invested greatly in engineering, ironing out blackspots, realigning and junctions, bypassing towns and villages and replacing the most dangerous roads with dual carriageways. They have also relied on good old-fashioned policing. 'Trafico' officers can often be seen watching the roads and pulling up suspicious looking vehicles or drivers. They have introduced a positive points system, as suggested by the ABD for the UK, and clamped down on drink driving.”

Humphries claims Spain’s success has come from a more balanced approach to improving road safety. “What they have not done is to flood the country with speed cameras, nor does there seem to be a great emphasis on speed enforcement,” he says. “Here in the UK road safety policy has concentrated almost solely on cameras and enforcement and people are still dying.”
 

10 February 2009