The speed management situation in Spain

Problem description

Every year in Spain, speeding is a present variable in about 20% of injury accidents. The results of some researches carried out in Spain show that:

Accidents caused by speeding: the rate of fatally injured is 8 every 100 accidents, whereas in those produced by other factors, this rate is only 4 every 100 accidents.
The average of road fatalities gets 60% higher when drivers exceed the speed limit. The percentage of fatal accidents rises 3% for every kilometre per hour increased.
Regarding the age and the sex: males aged between14-21 and 30-39 are the most implicated in speeding accidents.
The rate of pedestrian fatally injured with cars driving at 30 km/h is about 5%. However, when driving at 50 km/h this rate can be up to 50%.

Existing measures

Publicity campaigns to make drivers aware of the risk of speeding: thanks to a campaign developed last summer, 1,328,000 vehicles were monitored in order to detect speed excesses. 34,000 offenders were reported.

For the long weekend of May 2008, the Traffic General Directorate (DGT) has carried out a surveillance campaign in order to monitor speeding and aggressive driving. A radio broadcast campaign has been incorporated to put across some advices and to warn drivers about the consequences of speeding.

305 surveillance radars are used to spot drivers who break the law. The expected impact is to control the speed of 1.5 million vehicles, in 2,000 km stretches of road and to avert about 600 fatalities.

Success stories

Two main systems developed in Spain have contributed to the reduction of the number of traffic accidents, especially, those related to speed casualties.

The Penalty Point System:

Since it came into force, on July 2006, the percentage of casualties has decreased by 11%.
38% of all the points withdrawn and 40% of the reported penalties corresponded to speed traffic offences.
Depending on the exceeded speed limit, drivers can loose from two to six points.
92% of the surveyed persons thought that this system is one of the most important measures developed in Spain to reduce traffic accidents.

Robust new laws to tackle road traffic offences:

The Organic Law 10/1995 of the Penal Code was updated on November 2007 in order to toughen penalties.
By means of this road safety reform, speeding over 200 km/h in dual carriageways, 180 km/h in highways and 110 km/h in urban areas will be considered a traffic crime.
Moreover, reckless drivers will be sentenced to prison (from 6 months to 5 years).
Under the point-based system, drivers can also have their licence withdrawn between 1 and 6 years.

What is needed for the future?

One way to lessen the incidence of road traffic collisions is to reduce traffic speed. Improvements in driver behaviour have the potential to cut these statistics dramatically.

Another possibility, it is the implementation of the �??Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA)�?� system that not only allows reducing the accidents due to the speed control but also could contribute to reduce pollutants and consumption. However, one of the main problems, among other ones, is to identify the main responsible actors for supplying information about speed limits.

In addition to that, more safety cameras could be installed, police controls should be prioritised, more action against recidivists should be taken.