The new rule has not yet entered into force but will do so very soon, probably this year. The DGT has just recalled this, which has shown great interest in making this new measure effective as soon as possible. When that happens, neither passenger cars nor motorcycles will be able to exceed the maximum speed limits by 20 km / h when they pass another vehicle on a conventional road. It is one of the changes that the Government has introduced in the draft law that will modify the current Law on Traffic, Vehicle Circulation, and Road Safety. The objective of this measure, as has been said, is to promote safe behaviors at the wheel, although the DGT openly recognizes that the ultimate intention is to reduce overtaking on conventional roads because it is where most accidents with victims are concentrated. mortals.
The suppression of this measure, which has already been eliminated in the rest of the EU countries, reinforces the message that the overtaking maneuver carries a risk of a frontal collision, says the DGT, which with this and other measures hopes to reduce by 50 percent the number of deaths and serious injuries in traffic accidents over the next decade.
With the next modification of the Road Safety Law, neither cars nor motorcycles will be able to exceed the maximum speed limits by 20 km / h when they overtake another vehicle on conventional roads, the DGT recalled on Thursday via Twitter. It is intended to send the message that the overtaking maneuver is dangerous, insists the autonomous body, which recalls that in 2019 284 people died as a result of a frontal collision, 16% of the total fatalities in Spain.
The reform of the Traffic Law has yet to pass parliamentary processing, so new changes could be introduced: it must be approved by the Council of Ministers and sent to the Congress of Deputies, where parliamentary groups can present amendments to the text and delay even more its entry into force. However, the DGT insists on recalling a rule that is not yet in force and that produces rejection among some drivers and groups of motorists and motorists. One more genius of the DGT.
It would be funny if it were not a measure that will cost lives. The obsession with the speed of the DGT is such that they do not realize that the only safe overtaking is fast overtaking, he replied through Twitter’s ‘Movimiento140’, a platform sponsored by a company specialized in traffic fines resources. Some believe that it is a difficult rule to comply with. It was not respected before, and not now. When you go ahead you do what the car gives, for a safety issue,” says an Internet user. “In my opinion, it is not the 20 km / h margin in overtaking that causes accidents, but in measuring distances and times wrong.. By removing that margin that we now have, the risk increases explains another Internet user.
There is also no lack of drivers who are in favor of removing the exception of the 20 km / h margin. The best way to avoid an accident is to rethink that habit of overtaking to overtake when we are talking about a few minutes difference if the vehicle in front is almost at the maximum speed allowed, argues an Internet user. I suppose it has to do with accidents and how speed tends to make the consequences much worse, adds the same Internet user to understand the reform.
If what is intended is to reduce the accident rate, it is best to prohibit overtaking, because overtaking in these conditions can be very dangerous,” says another. With this and other measures, the DGT intends to reduce the accident rate on conventional roads, where deaths in traffic accidents are already 77% of the total. It is the data that most worries the DGT of the recent Balance of Road Accidents 2020, presented a few days ago by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. While deaths on motorways and highways fell by 34% in Spain, on conventional roads they only fell by 16%, much less than what decreased mobility in 2020 (25%, according to government data).
Of the 870 people who died in 2020 due to road accidents in Spain, 670 correspond to accidents that occurred on conventional roads, just 16% less than in 2019. On the other hand, 200 people lost their lives on motorways and highways, 34% less than the last year. The drop in deaths on freeways is more than double that on conventional roads, a trend that greatly worries those responsible for Traffic.” Greater decrease in the accident rate on highways and highways (-34%) than conventional roads (-16%). 670 deaths on conventional roads, 127 less than in 2019 but 77% of the total deaths “, recalled the DGT ago less than a week via Twitter.
Also, 36% of the total deaths on conventional roads ( 317 ) are still vulnerable users (motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians), another data that also worries the DGT a lot, especially to cyclists, who share a road with the rest of the vehicles and it is the group in which the decrease in the accident rate was least noticed (just a 10% drop with 36 deaths, four less than in 2019).
