65 Years Making Spanish Roads Safer

The Guardia Civil Traffic Group celebrated its 65 years on the roads of Spain since its creation in a special event in Madrid.

The event was chaired by the Secretary of State for Security, Rafael Pérez, who was accompanied by the general director of the Guardia Civil, Leonardo Marcos; the Undersecretary of the Interior, Susana Crisóstomo; the general director of Traffic, Pere Navarro; and the Government delegate in the Community of Madrid, Francisco Martín, among other authorities.

Pérez inaugurated an exhibition on the history of the Traffic Group that was open throughout the weekend, a visual tour that told how this Guardia Civil unit has evolved, from the uniforms of the agents to the types of vehicles used, including classic cars and motorcycles such as the Land Rover, the SEAT 124 or the R50 and R10, as well as current models, such as the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, the Renault Talisman or the BMW R1250.

The Mérida School instructors have also joined this celebration with a driving exhibition in which they have demonstrated some of the complicated tests that any agent who wants to pass the Traffic specialty must overcome.

The Traffic Group of the Guardia Civil was created by virtue of Law 14/1959 regulating traffic powers, with 560 guards in a Spain where one million vehicles circulated on 60,000 kilometres of roads.

The unit was growing in parallel with the increase in the number of vehicles in our country. Currently, it has almost 9,000 officers. The presence of women in the Traffic Group of the Guardia Civil has been increasing significantly in recent years: there are 185 women in management, motorist and traffic positions. In 1991, the first Traffic agents entered the unit, specialising in traffic reports. Two years later, the first female motorcyclist was appointed.

This unit depends on the Operations Command of the Deputy Operational Directorate. It is specialised and specifically conceived, prepared and organised for the exercise of the powers assigned by law to the Guardia Civil in matters of traffic, transportation and safety on interurban roads for public use, crossings, as well as in urban roads where appropriate.

Preferably, it carries out the specific tasks of surveillance, regulation and control of traffic and road safety, as well as land road transport.