christian garcia
January 10, 2023
Interior reveals the figures for deaths on the road during 2022: 1,145 deaths, which translates into 4% more than in 2019.
Minister Grande-Marlaska made public this Tuesday the data of deaths on the road during the past year, and it is especially striking that the number of deaths already exceeds the pre-pandemic figures. Despite the new Traffic Law, in 2022 a total of 1,145 people were killed in 1,042 accidents in our country (44 and 4% more than in 2019). What does decrease is the number of serious injuries, which drops 10% with up to 425 fewer injuries, thanks in large part to advances in safety and technology in new cars.
Road safety involves visiting the mechanic
seat belt saves lives
Of course, the majority of fatal accidents continue to occur on conventional roads (73% of the total), as well as the highway exit continues to be the main cause of accidents accounting for 42% (13% more than in 2019.) The fact that 25% of the injured people were not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident is also still overwhelming…
Another important aspect is that, according to Interior data, mobility has also grown compared to that reference year prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, during the last 12 months almost 440 million long-distance journeys have been made, 3% more than those registered in 2019 (427.1 million.)
More and more cars on the same roads
Likewise, the fleet of vehicles has increased by 3.6%, reaching 35.6 million units in circulation. The same has happened with the driver census, which has increased slightly by 0.82% to the current 27.5 million users.
“It is necessary to continue working to tackle the causes, reduce deaths and also contribute to raising awareness among the public about the drama of road accidents and their painful consequences,” says Minister Marlaska, who has indeed stressed that Spain continues to be a international benchmark in road safety with accident figures significantly below the average for EU countries. “In any case, the statistics continue to show us too many deaths and too many seriously injured on the road. It is a lot of suffering that could be avoided », he adds.
