Drivers warned to keep up their guard over holiday weekend

With the All Saints holiday weekend upon us, most people's minds are set on disconnecting from everyday life. Yet, the Catalan road authority has warned drivers to keep their guard up when travelling over the next few days, due to the large number of vehicles on the roads.

In all, some 163 people have died on Catalonia's roads so far this year, some 21% more than in the same period last year, when 135 people lost their lives in traffic accidents.

Over the next few days, with Thursday a public holiday and many people taking advantage to have a long weekend away, the road authority estimates that some 510,000 vehicles will leave the greater Barcelona area, above all on Wednesday and Thursday.

For those moving around the country by car, the authority says the roads expected to be affected most are the C-16, C-14 and C-17 motorways and the N-260 and N-145 highways, which lead to mountain destinations.

More fatal accidents on public holidays

According to the road authority the number of fatal road accidents goes up on the eve of public holidays and at the weekend, which it attributes to such factors as consuming alcohol and drugs, speeding, and the likelihood of more than one person travelling in each vehicle.

In fact, just last weekend four people were killed in four road accidents, one on the C-58 near Ripollet and one on the C-31 near Ventalló on Saturday morning, and two more later in the day on the C-55 near Castellbell i el Vilar and a fourth on the C-25 near Manresa.

The Catalan police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, will set up some 1,074 checkpoints around the country over this weekend, to check for alcohol and drug use, speeding, and the use of safety measures, such as seatbelts.

Police have warned of a "significant upturn" in the number of cases in which the fatal victims of traffic accidents were not wearing a seatbelt. Figures show that 16% of the people who died in road accidents in Catalonia in 2018 were not wearing a seatbelt, with many of them sitting in the back of the vehicle.