During the month of August, from the eleventh to the twenty first of the month, the Guardia Civil have been waging their annual summer campaign against speeding. The Dirrecion General de Trafico (DGT), the government organisation responsible for road safety and driving in Spain coordinated the campaign in all of Spain except the Basque country and Cataluña which have independence from the central government in such matters. The Guardia Civil made use of 264 mobile radars to supplement the fixed radar speed traps which has meant a total of more than two thousand control points around the country. This effort caught a total of 33,898 drivers exceeding the speed limits, this number was 2.38 per cent of the more than 1,400,000 speed checks made. Six out of ten of those caught were informed there and then with the rest receiving a surprise a few days later in the post. During the fifteen day campaign eight drivers were clocked doing more than 80 km per hour more than the speed limit, a fact which takes the punishment from more than just a fine and a few points off their licences to a possible prison sentence and the loss of their licences. One car, an Audi A-8, was caught doing 226 km per hour on the R-3 motorway outside Madrid.
The DGT highlights the fact that in 27 per cent of fatal accidents excess speed is a factor and that if drivers respected the speed limits 900 deaths a year could be avoided.
No comments:
Post a Comment