The Department of Traffic installs 264 mobile traffic cameras to control 100,000 vehicles per day

Yesterday the Department of Traffic (DGT) began a campaign to control speed limits on many of Spain’s roads by installing 264 mobile speed cameras which are expected to control the speed of up to 100,000 cars a day.

The campaign, which will last until August 23rd, has been presented under the slogan of ‘We all know that if we respect speed limits there will be less accidents on the roads. Why don’t we do it? As part of this campaign over the next 2 weeks DGT will double the number of speed cameras on Spain’s roads to control up to 1.5 million vehicles.

The Civil Guard will place the 264 moblie cameras on 2000 stretches of roads throughout Spain except for in the Basque Country and Catalonia whose regional governments are in charge of controlling their roads.

In 2008, 576 people were killed on Spain’s roads due to excess speed. DGT controlled the speed of 25 million vehicles and 65,000 drivers were reported for breaking the speed limit.

DGT insists that a 5% reduction in speed means that there would be 20% less mortal accidents and 10% less injuries.

In 2008 drivers who drove at an inappropriate speed was a factor in a quarter of all mortal accidents.

The start of this new campaign by DGT coincides with the beginning of a new permanent speed camera on the A-6 to Coruña on a stretch of road which is considered to be especially dangerous at the exit of the Guadarrama tunnel travelling towards Madrid.

See also: Roads in Spain and Driving in Spain