Spanish road safety hits plateau

Strong measures in Spain have helped reduce the country’s road fatality rate enormously in recent years. Tougher enforcement of road rules commenced in 2004, with a notable drop in speeding and drink driving, resulting in a reduce rate of crashes. However a recent report from the Spanish motoring body RACC reveals that the figures have hit a plateau, with road fatalities for 2015 similar to those in 2014. This is the third consecutive year that Spain’s road fatality rates have remained broadly unchanged. There were 1,130 road fatalities in Spain during 2015. However RACC did also comment that given the upswing in the Spanish economy following the downturn of 2008, transport and mobility levels have increased in the last three years. In this respect, that crash levels have remained static despite increasing traffic volumes shows that there has been a gradual gain in overall road safety. But the data also shows that there is a need for a new focus and new strategies to further lower the country’s rate of vehicle crashes, moving beyond addressing speeding and drink driving.