The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has explained that “alcohol and drugs have been and continue to be one of the main problems for road safety both in our country and throughout Europe”, and for that reason the new campaign of the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) of awareness to avoid incidents on the road will insist on the risks of driving under the effects of these substances.
Grande-Marlaska presented the campaign at an event held at the DGT headquarters, in which he was accompanied by the undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Susana Crisóstomo; the general director of Traffic, Pere Navarro; the director of the Road Safety Observatory, Álvaro Gómez, and the head of the Traffic Group of the Guardia Civil, General Tomás García.
This summer, the DGT campaign once again focuses on alcohol, but emphasises the idea that road safety is a personal decision, that is, a conscious choice that each driver has to make to comply with traffic rules, since that its compliance is the most effective way to avoid road traffic incidents.
The chosen slogan is “The road does not care how much you have drunk. Only zero has zero consequences”, a message that appeals to the responsibility of each driver.
“We want to show the real and personal consequences of prohibited driving behaviours that show contempt for the community and we try to highlight that road safety is a decision, that respecting safety rules is a conscious choice that must be made every time,” said the minister. “Our obligation is to enforce traffic rules because it is the most effective way to avoid accidents and traffic victims,” he added.
One of the reasons that has led the General Directorate of Traffic to focus the campaign on this very specific message is that alcohol is still the second cause of fatal incidents in our country, with 29 percent of deaths, only behind of distractions, with 31, and ahead of speed, with 23 percent.
In order for the campaign to reach the largest possible number of citizens, a television advertisement has been created, four radio spots that can be heard on the main radio stations in the country, a graphic for printed media and different pieces for digital media and social networks.
The audiovisual piece recreates a typical meal and after-dinner conversation with friends in which one of them, Pablo, in a state of considerable intoxication, decides that it is time to retire. Another of his friends, seeing the drunken state in which he is, tells him that he will give him a ride in his car because he has stopped drinking before. They both get into the car and begin the return trip that ends with the collision with another car in which a family is correctly traveling. A very frequent incident and from which no one is safe.
The radio spots try to banish false myths and beliefs regarding alcohol and driving, such as alternating the intake of water between drinks or not mixing different drinks, all of which are practices incompatible with driving.
A landing page for the campaign has also been created that can be seen at www.dgt.es and in which the citizen, in addition to seeing all the pieces created, will be able to participate in the activity called “Search for your own adventure”, where they will be able to choose which character in the ad is going to take the drunk friend home and learn the consequences of that decision.
In addition, the campaign can also be seen throughout the summer in cinema circuits and in some of the advertising elements in the cities.
Concern about warnings
The Minister of the Interior has also taken advantage of his appearance to denounce that some drivers report the location of alcohol and drug controls through social networks and messaging applications.
“It is an unsupportive and uncivil practice, because this warning will allow a drunk driver to evade control and cause a serious accident at any other point where innocent citizens may be affected,” said Grande-Marlaska, who added that it also means “an attack on the waterline of a policy against alcohol while driving that is a basic and fundamental element of road safety policy, because it saves lives.”
The Minister of the Interior has asked the DGT to study the best way and means of incorporating the prohibition of this type of warning into our legislation. Countries such as Switzerland and France have already regulated it and included it in their sanctioning rules.
Better behaviour
Grande-Marlaska has also influenced the current situation of road safety. So far this year, and until Sunday, April 23, 507 people have died in road incidents, which is 6 percent more than in the same period of the previous year (27 more deaths).
The increase in fatalities is concentrated on motorways, with 29 more deaths, while on conventional roads it remains stable. Likewise, deaths in passenger cars increase, with 24 more deaths and on weekdays (22 more deaths).
These data, despite being better than those of the first quarter, represent a challenge, since July and August are the months of the year in which the greatest number of road trips occur. In the summer of last year, 238 people lost their lives in road incidents and 959 were seriously injured.
Traffic faces these two months with the objective set on motorcycles, since they account for 3 percent of traffic and 25 percent of deaths; in road departures, causing 42 percent of fatal incidents; in road incidents, which represent 11 percent of traffic incidents, and in alcohol, drugs and speed, which continue to be, along with distractions, the main causes of road incidents.
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