Spain - More speed traps in August

More speed traps in August
By: thinkSpain , Monday, August 10, 2009

http://www.thinkspain.com/news/new-R....jpg&width=250The Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT), Spain's traffic policing authority, is going to double its speed limit enforcement over the next fortnight as part of a new campaign to increase awareness about respecting speed limits.
According to a press release from the DGT, the idea behind the initiative is to spread the message: 'We all know that if we keep to the speed limits there will be fewer accidents on the roads, so why don't we do it?'

The campaign will be carried out between 10th and 23rd August, with extra speed traps in about 2000 different places on the roads as well as radio and TV commercials advertising the fact.
Apart from the 264 mobile radars which are currently used to control the speed of over 100,000 vehicles every day on Spanish roads, a new, permanent radar on the dangerous stretch of road coming out of the Guadarrama tunnel on the A6 in Madrid will come into operation tomorrow.

The DGT has reiterated that excess speed is still one of the main causes of traffic accidents, especially on minor roads and that 576 people died on Spanish roads last year as a direct result of excessive speed.
According to a report by the World Health Organisation, the number of people killed or injured after being run over is also directly related to speed, with a pedestrian's death being almost a certainty if the car that hits him exceeds 80 kmph.
High speeds are not only bad for safety on the roads, but also for the environment, with much higher levels of greenhouse gases being produced at higher speeds.
Despite the relatively high number of deaths on Spanish roads (2,182 people died on the roads last year) the number of fatal accidents has dropped by 50% since 2003.
Some headway has also been made on the speed issue, with the average speed dropping from 116.7 kmph in 2006 to 114 kmph in 2007. The number of people caught driving at more than 140 kmph has also declined.