In July 2005, the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) introduced the first 37 speed cameras on Spanish roads. Since then, in what the government maintains is an attempt to reduce the death toll on the roads, the DGT has extended their use year after year, adding a thousand new cameras in under six years.

The national traffic department now has 500 fixed speed cameras. There are another 218 in the Catalan Traffic Service and 73 in the Basque Country, both areas with their own responsibility for traffic control.

The rash of radar controls has been extended to municipal and local services that are responsible for the safety of 'A' and 'B' roads. Thus, another 303 locally administered radars takes the total to 1,093 altogether. Multanova, the company selling 80% of these devices, puts the figure at 1,200.

Region by region, Catalunya has more cameras than anywhere else with 218, followed by Andalusia (140), Castilla y Leon (129), Castilla-La Mancha (93), Galicia (92) and Madrid (77). The Balearic Islands have the lease with 9, Cantabria (11) and La Rioja (12). The DGT also operates 300 mobile radars, located mostly in patrol cars.  Catalunya and the Basque Country also have their own mobile radars.

Average speed radars, costing an average of 120,000 to 150,000 euros each, are also being introduced. These devices have two cameras installed at the beginning and end of a stretch of road, capable of recording both entry and exit times of any vehicle.

The radar then calculates the average speed maintained by the vehicle in question and, if it is higher than the speed limit, the offender is photographed and receives a fine in the post.

There are currently eight average speed cameras on Spanish roads, four of which have been installed this year in the following tunnels: Guadarrama (Madrid), Sartego (A Coruña), Despeñaperros (Jaén) and on the Zaragoza ring-road.

The new director of the DGT, María Seguí, who took over on Monday from Pere Navarro, said she will try to reduce the number of deaths and injuries on the roads, but did not reveal whether her intention was to do so by increasing the number of speed controls.