road accidents
The number of road deaths has fallen in Spain but has increased in the province of Malaga
10.01.09 - 11:47 -
SAFETY. In general Spain’s public awareness campaigns have been successful, but 60% of victims in Malaga were not wearing a seatbelt. / SUR
In figures
Last year in one of its many road safety campaigns the Traffic Department told drivers that it couldn’t do their driving for them (“No podemos conducir por ti”). Perhaps the authorities wish they could have taken the wheel in the place of a number of motorists in the province of Malaga as in 2008 there have been more deaths and injuries in traffic accidents than in the previous year.
In total 72 people lost their lives on the province’s roads in 2008, four more than in 2007. This area breaks the pattern set in Spain as a whole where there were 2,182 road deaths in 2008, 560 fewer than in 2007, or in other words, a reduction of more than 20 per cent. In general in Spain the road safety campaigns, combined with the driving licence points system, stricter penalties and greater public awareness appear to have contributed to the good results.
As far as the number of injuries caused by road accidents are concerned, in Malaga the figures are also more negative. While in 2007 108 people were injured in 2008 the number went up to 146, an increase of 35.2 per cent. The number of people suffering serious injures doubled to 32 in 2008, while those with minor injuries increased by 75 per cent to 42, 18 more than in 2007.
While the results are worrying, the provincial head of the Traffic Department, Trinidad Hernández, pointed out that one incident alone has significantly influenced the final annual balance. This was the accident in April in Torremolinos when a tourist bus and another vehicle collided, causing nine deaths and 30 injuries. “This accident would have altered the statistics in any province”, Hernández told SUR recently .
Fewer accidents
The traffic head went on to stress that there are some positive figures, such as the fall in the number of accidents. Despite the high death rate, accidents themselves fell in 2008 by 12 per cent, from 65 (with 114 vehicles involved) in 2007 to 55 (with 88 vehicles involved) in 2008.
In Hernández’s opinion this can be put down to the fact that drivers are in general being more and more careful. “We also must bear in mind that the volume of traffic in general has increased, but despite this the number of accidents has decreased”, she added.
September was the month with the most fatal traffic accidents (nine) while January and August saw only two each. However April saw the most road deaths (13), although nine of these were in the Torremolinos coach crash.
The causes of the accidents are varied although speeding is behind more than half of them. Distractions are a cause of another 40 per cent while a traffic offence was the reason for 22 per cent.
In 47 per cent of the accidents in Malaga the vehicles involved left the road. Another 35 per cent were collisions, while 12 per cent involved pedestrians being knocked over, according to Government figures.
The statistics also reveal that more accidents (six out of ten) happened on secondary roads in the province, while 19 per cent occurred on dual carriageways (autovías) and seven per cent on motorways (autopistas).
The majority of victims who died on the roads of the province of Malaga last year were over the age of 65 (a statistic also influenced by the Torremolinos coach crash). The second largest number of deaths affected the 25 to 44 age group. Seventy-five per cent of the victims were male.
Another statistic worth mentioning is that six out of ten people who died last year were not wearing a seatbelt.
The Finnish tragedy
The Finnish tragedy
The tragedy that occurred on a rainy April 19th appears to have influenced the province of Malaga’s negative road accident statistics for 2008.
A coach carrying 47 Finnish tourists overturned, killing nine passengers and leaving 42 injured, many of whom required treatment in local hospitals.
This was one of the most serious accidents to have taken place in Malaga in recent years. It happened at kilometre 224 of the A-7 just inside the municipality of Torremolinos, and was apparently caused by the driver of another vehicle who was travelling at 155 kilometres per hour, 35 kilometres above the legal limit, according to the Guardia Civil.
If we subtract the figures referring to this one accident from the final balance for 2008, the number of deaths on the province’s roads would have fallen last year by ten per cent compared with the previous year.
