The RACC Mobility Club and Real Automóvil Club de España (RACE) have presented their 20th edition of annual Crash Risk Mapping of the Spanish road network. For the first time in six years, the sections of the State Highway Network with a “high risk” of serious or fatal crashes have increased, involving 1,974 km.

The 25,101 km assessment, completed using the iRAP Methodology for the 2020-2022 triennium, identifies the sections of interurban roads with the highest risk of a serious or fatal crash occurring. It included 1,395 sections of the State Highway Network that supports 50.4 per cent of all kilometres travelled.

The results show:

• A total of 2,987 crashes resulting in fatalities or serious injuries occurred on the network between 2020-2022, resulting in 1,096 deaths and 2,616 people seriously injured
• 7.8 per cent of the network (1,974 km) presents a “high” or “very high” risk of a serious or fatal crash occurring
• The risk index as a whole has been reduced from 15.3 to 6.1 on high-volume roads (-60%) and from 47.7 to 22.6 on non-urban single carriageway highways (-53%)
• The top 10 highest risk stretches are single carriageway roads (with one lane in each direction of travel), with intersections and vehicle flow below 10,000 vehicles per day. Their risk index almost four times higher than that of dual carriageway roads.
• Despite these data, there has been a positive evolution in road safety since 2009. Fatal and serious crashes have decreased by more than 73 per cent, with a 50 per cent reduction in the last decade.

Fatal and serious crashes since 2009 (Source RACE)

For more information

• Read the RACC press release here (in Spanish)
• Read the report here (in Spanish)

Images credit: Luke Rogers, iRAP (lead image) and RACE (graph)