Spain Launches Week-Long Crackdown on Distracted Driving, a Factor in 32% of Fatal Crashes
Spain's Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) launched a new special enforcement campaign against distracted driving on October 5, running until Sunday, October 11. Traffic officers of the Civil Guard will target behaviours such as mobile phone use at the wheel on roads across the country, with regional and local police forces also joining the operation.
According to DGT data, distraction is the most common concurrent factor in crashes on Spanish roads: in 2025 it was present in 15,707 crashes, 21% of the total, and in 444 fatal crashes, 32% of the total. Improper mobile phone use while driving is the most frequently sanctioned distraction: in the previous campaign, held from October 6 to 12, 2025, 47.4% of the fines issued were for phone use, and 397 municipalities in 42 provinces took part.
This year's campaign forms part of Operation Focus on the Road, run across Europe by the RoadPol network of traffic police forces. In 17 provinces, volunteers from ASPAYM, the federation of people with spinal cord injuries, will accompany officers at checkpoints to raise awareness of the consequences of distracted driving.
The DGT stresses that even a few seconds looking at a phone means driving a considerable distance effectively 'blind', the central message of the campaign.
(Source: Directorate General of Traffic of Spain)
Source: Directorate General of Traffic of Spain
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Photo: 图：Hand held phone in car.JPG。CC BY-SA 3.0 | Ed Poor at English Wikipedia，Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Hand held phone in car.JPG. CC BY-SA 3.0 | Ed Poor at English Wikipedia, via Wikimedia Commons.
