In a bid to clamp down on drink driving and driving under the infuence of drugs, traffic police will be carrying out over 25,000 controls every day this week in light of the number of Christmas lunches and dinners being celebrated.
During the whole of next week (December 9th to 15th) officers from the Guardia Civil will be setting up control points on all different types of roads at all different times of the day and night in order to limit the number of drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol circulating on the country's roads.
Driving under the influence of either drugs or alcohol causes a third of all fatal road traffic accidents on Spanish roads.
Specifically, 19% of road traffic deaths last year could be attributed to illegal drug consumption, and 66% of drivers killed on the roads were found to have three or more times the legal limit of alcohol in their blood.
The Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT) underlines that the consumption of alcohol not only increases the probability of having an accident, but also implies a greater risk of that accident being either fatal or causing severe injuries.
In order to increase road safety this Christmas in the nation's towns too, the DGT has invited the local councils of all towns with more than 25,000 inhabitants to join the campaign by setting up controls in their urban areas. Last year 346 town councils took part, carrying out a total of more than 50,000 drugs and alcohol tests.
