The DGT to Increase Speed Checks with More Radars Before Easter

The Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) will launch a new intensive surveillance campaign next week, focusing on compliance with speed limits as a key risk factor in road accidents.

The campaign, which will run from 7 to 13 April (the latter marking the start of Easter as Palm Sunday), will be conducted by officers from the Civil Guard Traffic Group, as well as local and regional police who join the initiative, according to the DGT on Saturday.

Traffic aims to monitor particularly risky sections associated with speed, as well as areas where traffic exceeds the established limit and there is a high accident rate, all in line with recommendations from international and European organisations urging national road safety bodies to ensure speed limits are adhered to.

Moreover, this initiative is developed at the European level by the RoadPol association (European Roads Policing Network), meaning that surveillance will not only be carried out in Spain but also in all countries affiliated with this entity.

In the last campaign of this type, held from 15 to 21 July 2024, officers from the Civil Guard Traffic Group and local police from 103 municipalities checked a total of 1,421,699 vehicles and issued 64,172 speeding fines.

Inappropriate speed is the third most common contributing factor in traffic accidents, especially those with fatalities, according to the DGT. This factor was present last year in 218 fatal accidents on roads throughout Spain, except in Catalonia and the Basque Country, which are managed by their regional governments.

In addition to periodic campaigns, the DGT uses other speed control tools, such as fixed radars, mobile radars, or aerial monitoring from helicopters.

So far in 2025, 41 new radars (26 fixed and 15 section radars) have started operating, as part of the DGT's plan to install 122 new speed control points throughout this year.

This plan aims to reduce the number of fatal accidents and serious injuries. "It is proven that speed not only affects the risk of being involved in a traffic accident but also that the higher the speed, the more difficult it is to react in time to prevent the accident, and the more severe the injuries caused by it," Traffic pointed out.

In May 2018, the European Commission launched the third and final phase of its actions to modernise the European transport system with measures to promote safer road traffic, less polluting vehicles, and more advanced technological solutions, while supporting industrial competitiveness in the EU.

Among other measures, all new vehicles registered from 6 July 2024 must have a series of advanced safety features (ADAS), including the Intelligent Speed Assistant (ISA).

This system, comprising the vehicle's navigator - which displays the speed limit on the road being travelled - and a signal recognition system that complements digital mapping and detects temporary speed limits, helps the driver to know and respect speed limits, contributing to improved road safety.