Increase in Speeding Fines: DGT Issues 75,000 in One Week

Speed is one of the main factors that increase the number of accidents, according to the DGT. Excessive or inappropriate speed is a major contributing factor in traffic accidents, being present in a very high percentage of accidents with victims. Therefore, awareness campaigns and speed controls are a fundamental part of the DGT's road safety strategy. It has been calculated that a small reduction in average speed could significantly decrease accident rates.

This was demonstrated in the latest monitoring campaign by the Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT), as more than 75,000 drivers were reported for exceeding speed limits between April 7 and 13, just before Easter.

During this period, officers from the Civil Guard Traffic Group set up 3,527 speed control points, investing over 5,100 hours of work and checking a total of 1,163,126 vehicles.

The department led by Pere Navarro highlighted that these figures represent an increase of 207,322 vehicles checked compared to the last speed control campaign conducted in July 2024.

In this new monitoring campaign, out of the total vehicles checked, 75,028 drivers (6.5%) were reported for driving at speeds above the limit, a slightly higher percentage than recorded in recent campaigns.

By type of road, the percentage of drivers reported compared to those checked is higher on conventional roads compared to those on motorways and highways, with 6.56% and 6.3% respectively (33,250 and 39,862 drivers reported). However, there was an increase of 1.4 points in drivers reported on high-capacity roads compared to the July 2024 campaign. Additionally, 1,916 drivers (2.6%) were reported on crossings.

In the criminal domain, eleven of the reported drivers committed an offence against road safety and were brought to court for exceeding the speed limit by more than 80 km/h, as established by Article 379.1 of the Penal Code.

Various regional and local police forces conducted other checks within their jurisdiction, a collaboration that the DGT considers "very important as it unifies the message of respecting established speed limits, regardless of the road being travelled."

According to the DGT, at high speeds, especially in adverse conditions such as rain, snow, or poor road conditions, the driver's ability to react and control the vehicle in unforeseen circumstances decreases drastically.

The faster one drives, the narrower the driver's field of vision becomes, making it difficult to perceive lateral dangers or important elements of the environment. Moreover, the distance required to completely stop a vehicle increases exponentially with speed. This means that at higher speeds, much more space is needed to avoid a collision once a hazard is detected.