Madrid (EFE) in non-holiday periods and significantly higher than that of other holidays.
Thus, in the last 10 years there were a total of 230,000 accidents in summer, Easter Week, the December long weekend and Christmas, of which some 165,000 (71%) took place during the summer holidays.
A time when there were also 3,300 road deaths and 234,000 injuries.
The data is collected in the study “Ir y volver. X-ray of traffic accidents in summer trips in Spain (2012-2021)”, prepared in collaboration with FESVIAL (Spanish Foundation for Road Safety), presented this Tuesday.
This report analyzes the summer departure and return operations, comparing them with normal working periods and with the rest of the vacation periods common to all of Spain.
Driving at more than 30 degrees equal to an alcohol level of 0.29
The effects of heat, fatigue, distractions, the density of traffic, carelessness and speeding due to wanting to arrive as soon as possible are some of the reasons that influence the higher accident rate in the summer season, pointed out Mar Garre, director General of the Direct Line Foundation, during the presentation.
Driving at more than 30 degrees could be equivalent to getting behind the wheel with a blood alcohol level of 0.29 gr/l and the risk of an accident increases between 15 and 25%.
In fact, 10% of the increase in distractions is influenced by heat.
Accident type: exit from the road and near the destination
The most frequent accident in summer is leaving the road, which increases 1.6 points compared to non-holiday periods.
In addition, there is also a notable increase in frontal collisions, rollovers and collisions with obstacles, types of accidents closely related to fatigue and distracted driving.
In the summer there is a rise in accidents on conventional roads, where 65% of road accidents occur.
In addition, they usually occur near the destination, which could be caused not only by fatigue, but also by a certain relaxation of the driver when seeing the proximity of his arrival, Garre has specified.
This type of accident tends to affect men more, especially the youngest (18 to 29 years).
15 million exceed the speed limit and 6 million drink alcohol
The Línea Directa Foundation has also wanted to learn more about the driving habits of Spanish drivers on long-distance journeys through 1,700 surveys, the results of which show that “there is much room for improvement”, Garre acknowledged.
A total of 15.5 million drivers (56%) do not properly plan the route, another 15 million (54%) confess to exceeding the speed limits on their way to vacation, 17 million (61%) make the trip in one go and 1.5 million try to overcome fatigue to finish the route.
In addition, more than half do not take turns with other passengers to drive, an attitude that is especially frequent in men, and 82% do not know how to correctly place the load in the vehicle.
What is especially dangerous is that 6 million motorists (23%) confess to drinking beers and even mixed drinks during summer outbound and return trips. 25% admit to eating copiously, a circumstance that can favor drowsiness and heaviness.
Tarragona, Burgos and Girona cover the most critical sections
The report has also analyzed the road network in modular sections of 20 kilometers in which there have been at least 3 fatal accidents on holidays in the last decade.
The 10 road sections with the most deaths are located in Tarragona, on the AP-7 (Km 320-334), with 18 deaths and 52 injuries; in Burgos, on the old NI (km 254-278), with 7 deaths and 15 injured; and in Girona, on the C-33 (km 6-9), with 7 dead and 11 injured.
By autonomous communities, those with the greatest number of critical sections are Catalonia, Andalusia, the Valencian Community and Castilla y León. On the opposite side are Extremadura, Navarra and Murcia.