Extra speed traps as summer set to bring 81.5 million car trips

MAJOR traffic jams are expected and a rise in speeding fines as 81.5 million car journeys take place across Spain over the next two months.

Last summer alone, 220 people lost their lives in road crashes, and in an attempt to reduce the number this year the traffic authority has set up 1,500 speed traps which will remain in place for July, August and the early part of September.

These are in addition to existing fixed speed cameras, and Guardia Civil traffic police will spend 80% of their working hours monitoring secondary roads, given that eight in 10 road deaths occur on these rather than on motorways.

Three specific crackdown campaigns will take place over the next two months.

Police will be randomly stopping drivers to check the condition of their vehicles between July 6 and 12, and will reinforce speeding checks between July 20 and 26.

Additional breathalysing and drug-testing will be carried out around August 15, a national holiday and usually a time when towns and villages throughout the country hold their local fiestas.