The Equalizer

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It's not a nice subject to blog about, but it's one that frustrates me quite a bit.

On the run up to, during, and after Spanish Fiestas, the spanish press and the Department of transport run a campaign surrounding road safety in general on Spanish roads.

Not a bad thing at all. The problem is that it all seems to be lip service and the dire situation on Spanish roads never seems to change from one year to the next, regardless of what they claim to be doing about the situation.

In Spain, it is also a requirement to be 18 before driving a car (However, 15 for a moped). compared to the UK where you need to be 17 to drive a car and 16 for a moped.

The Spanish driving test is although considered to be fairly thorough.

So, all things being equal you would have expected that the number of accidents and fatalities on Spanish roads would be proportionate to those seen on roads in the UK.

Not so - the latest complete records released by the UK's National Office of Statistics (2009) shows that Spain has a population of 47 Million, with 32'525'000 registered road vehicle and 681,298 km of roads. This is compared to the UK where there is an population of 62 Million, with 33'640'000 registered road vehicles, and 392'160 km of roads.

You may have thought that Spain, a more stringent driving exam, combined with few vehicles driving on more kms of road would result in fewer accidents, but this is far from the case. As an overall comparison, for the same year the UK had a rate of 37 road traffic fatalities per 1 Million head of population, compared to Spain with 59 road traffic deaths per 1 Million head of population.

Indeed, at the end of 2009, Spain congratulated itself for managing to reduce the number of road fatalities recorded for the whole of the year - down to 'just' 1'859. This was the first time that the figures had fallen below 2'000 pa since records began in 1969 and represented a decline for the sixth consecutive year. Figures peaked in 1989 with over 7'000 fatalities.

As a comparison, the UK suffered 2'690 such fatalities in 1989 and 1'146 in 2009*.

Taking all of this into account you can understand how it flabbergasted me to see a headline in the local media shortly after easter, of the DGT congratulating themselves that there was 'just' 40 fatalities on Spain's roads over the easter holiday period. Hooray ! - a record apparently, although not something I personally would have been especially proud of, if I had been the Minister of Transport.

Once Spain has finished congratulating itself over it's highly (un)impressive road fatality demographic it may decide to do something about it other than empowering the Guardia Civil to hand out more fines for speeding.

*The UK Stats do not include the deaths of pedal cyclists or pedestrians involved in road accidents - I was unable to confirm exactly how the Spanish stats were collated, or if they even included these figures.