Road accident fatalities on roads in Spain record worst January in decade with 100 deaths

JANUARY 2022 has ended with a total of 87 fatal traffic accidents on Spanish roads, in which 100 people have died.

The tally is 27 more than in the same month in 2019 and makes it the worst January in a decade.

To find a similar figure, you have to go back to 2012, when 102 people died on Spanish roads.

According to the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT), this increase has also occurred in a context of fewer journeys, specifically 1% fewer long-haul road trips than in January 2019.

Most of these fatal accidents have been caused by speeding, distractions such as using a mobile phone whilst driving, or drink driving.

According to the director of the DGT Road Safety Observatory, Alvaro Gomez, “the increase in the accident rate has been concentrated on high-capacity roads and on weekends, with motorway entrance and exit ramp interchanges the sites of far more crashes.”

Passenger cars are the ones that have seen the greatest increase in their accident rate, going from 35 deaths in January 2019 to 49 this year.

11 fatalities who were not wearing seat belts at the time of the accident, and one bicycle fatality was riding without a helmet.

By region, Andalucia, Valencia and Castile-La Mancha show a significant increase compared to the figures for January 2019.

Of the 100 road accident fatalities recorded, 24 were registered in Andalucia (13 in January 2019), followed by 16 in the Valencian Community (six in 2019), 14 in Castilla-La Mancha (four in 2019), 12 in Catalunya (eight in 2019), seven in Galicia (four in 2019), six in Castilla y León (two in 2019), five in the Community of Madrid (three in 2019), four in the Balearic Islands (five in 2019), three in Extremadura (two in 2019 ).

In addition, 2 in Aragon (six in 2019), two in Asturias (three in 2019), two in Murcia (three in 2019) and two in the Basque Country (one in 2019), one in Navarra (zero in 2019) and none in the Canary Islands (eight in 2019), Cantabria (two in 2019), La Rioja (three in 2019), Ceuta (zero in 2019) and Melilla (zero in 2019).

The DGT, which issues monthly reports on the accident rate on Spanish roads, compares the data with 2019, given that 2020 and 2021 are not as relevant because of traffic restrictions due to the measures adopted against the coronavirus pandemic.

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