Speed limits fall to 90 kilometres per hour after New Year

Spain’s traffic authorities had considered reducing the limit from its current 100 kilometres per hour on main non-motorway inter-urban highways – most of which are single carriageway only – in line with other European countries such as Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Greece and Croatia, which are now at 90, and France, where it is 80, but is set to approve the law change today (Friday), making it a certainty.

The vast majority – 77%, in fact – of road crashes involving deaths are on secondary, single-carriageway highways, mostly due to either vehicles veering off the edge or being driven too fast.

According to the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) led by Pere Navarro and to interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, a 30-day stay of grace will be given for speed limit signs to be changed using giant stickers – the method used in 2011 when motorway speeds dropped briefly from 120 kilometres per hour to 110 in response to a spike in fuel costs.

A new guide to changes in speed limits reveals that non-motorway dual carriageways will remain at 100 kilometres per hour for motorbikes and cars, whilst single-carriageway highways will drop to 90 kilometres per hour and, on both, lorries, buses, coaches and vans must not exceed 80.

Breaking the 90-kilometre limit will be subject to a fine, normally €100 or reduced to €50 if paid early, but if the speed measured exceeds 110 kilometres per hour, the fine rises to €300 and means two points deduced from the driver’s licence.

Mobile phone use at the wheel – which includes simply holding the phone in your hand – will soon attract a six-point loss rather than the current three, and the three-point deduction for not wearing a seatbelt in a car or helmet on a motorbike, or children not travelling with the required booster seats or restraints, will now rise to four points.

The changes will, in practice, come into force on January 2, although it may take longer for some road signs to be altered.