So, the double December bank holiday week is over and we have the usual figures to contemplate: 98 dead in 80 traffic accidents – an average of 10 deaths a day. A third of those that died weren’t wearing a seatbelt, and 45 % of the accidents involved excess speed. No figures on the involvement of alcohol yet but I’m sure it played a significant role.
I still believe that a bit of ‘mano duro‘, no-messing discipline is what’s needed here. A year ban for drink-driving on any scale, and higher fines or bans for everything else. Many Spanish regularly drink and drive, speed like crazy, and drive 2 feet from the car in front. Up the punishment and double the level of enforcement, and maybe these figures will fall to rest-of-the-world levels one day.
Meanwhile, in related news, 5% of drivers that died on the roads last year had cocaine in their system, double the figures from four years previously.
Philip Addicott
12 Dec 05 at 9:35 pm
98! We will get no change from 1500 road related deaths for the Christmas holiday period here in South Africa. A strange fact however is that in addition to alcohol and speed a grate many of these are pedestrians crossing major roads.
Ben
13 Dec 05 at 12:44 am
That certainly puts things into perspective. I don’t know about S.A. but what gets me here is that there is a whole government ministry dedicated to sorting out this problem in Spain, with obvioulsy impressive resources and a population of only 44 million to watch over. And still the numbers remain the same…
Luis
13 Dec 05 at 11:35 am
Hi Ben.
You meant “mano dura”. It’s “la mano”, do you remember?
Ben
13 Dec 05 at 11:40 am
Damn I still get that wrong! Those tricksy words with an ending that fools you every time. Same with ‘el’ sofa and ‘el’ tema. Drives me mad that I still get these wrong!
Mike P.
13 Dec 05 at 12:19 pm
I agree with you, that number is quite astounding, and el and la for words like mapa are confuzzling!!
By the way, people from the UK always refer to these as ‘bank’ holidays, why is that? As we both know, last weeks puente had nothing to do with banks..
Ben
13 Dec 05 at 12:21 pm
That’s just what we call these mid-week days off in the UK – it must have been the banks that first got the days free I suppose (incidentally, in the UK they are always moved to a Monday to ensure a long weekend.)
César
13 Dec 05 at 6:39 pm
Esto de las muertes en la carretera y no sólo las muertes parece que es algo totalmente asumido como NORMAl, como efecto secundario de la “movilidad individual moderna” al que nadie le quiere meter mano.
Por Dios, son casi cien familias destrozadas, más los cientos de heridos que van a tener que sufrir rehabilitación o incapacitación para el resto de sus días. Lo peor de todo es que casi siempre estos accidentes se deben a la negligencia de los conductores, pero no hay que olvidar la APATíA de las autoridades y el dejar hacer y mirar a otro lado de los ciudadanos. ¿Hasta cuándo? ¡Esto es simplemente INTOLERABLE!
Ben
13 Dec 05 at 6:43 pm
Totally agree Cesar.