Spain cracks down on social media warnings about traffic checkpoints
The traffic authorities in Spain want to fine anyone who discloses the location of alcohol and drug police checkpoints
Spain's traffic authorities are taking a novel approach to reducing road accidents by targeting social media and messaging apps. The focus is on drivers who reveal the location of alcohol and drug checkpoints, an act considered “uncivil” and potentially encouraging dangerous driving. With alcohol being the second-highest cause of road deaths in Spain, the department aims to curb this preventable issue.
Ultimately, the powers that be want to fine drivers who post checkpoint locations online, or even people who message the details to friends privately through the likes of WhatsApp.
It’s a potential privacy and human rights minefield, so the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has asked the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) to study the ways in which the current legislation could be amended to ban these types of advance warnings.
And while it may sound like a gross invasion, countries like France and Switzerland have already regulated this practice and have laws in place that allow them to fine rule-breakers.
This summer’s awareness campaign against road accidents is very focused on the effects of alcohol and drug use while driving.
“They have been and continue to be one of the main problems for road safety both in our country and throughout Europe,” the minister stressed this week.
TV and radio ads, social media posts and print versions of the new campaign have been spread far and wide and all carry the same hard-hitting slogan: ‘The road doesn’t care how much you’ve had to drink. Only zero has zero consequences.’
One of the reasons that has led the authorities to focus the campaign on this very specific message is that alcohol is still the second cause of fatal accidents in this country, resulting in 29% of deaths.
Drink-driving comes only behind distractions at the wheel (things like talking on the phone or fiddling with the sat nav), which still account for 31% of road deaths. Speeding comes in at number three (23%).
And the figures so far this year are equally frightening. Up to and including April 23, a total of 507 people had already lost their lives on Spanish roads, which is 6% more than the same period in 2023.
This increase in fatalities is concentrated on motorways and dual carriageways, with 29 more deaths, while on conventional roads the number remains stable. There has also been a big leap in deaths in passenger cars, with 24 more fatalities, and on working days (22 more deaths).
Last summer, 238 people lost their lives in road accidents and 959 were seriously injured.
With a firm objective of reducing these terrible numbers, the traffic authorities have decided to divide and conquer.
This summer, their attention will be focused on key areas, such as motorcycles, since they account for just 3% of the overall traffic on the roads but 25% of deaths; on motorway exit points, where 42% of fatal accidents happen; and on alcohol, drugs and speed, which continue to be, along with distractions, the main causes of road accidents.
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Image: Guardia Civil
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