Aragó street runs from Rambla Guipúscoa, in Sant Martí, to Tarragona street, in Sants. It crosses Eixample and connects Diagonal and Passeig de Gràcia with Meridiana Avenue. Year after year, its intersections are among the worst for traffic. Next to Gran Via, this is one of the arteries with the most traffic and black spots in Barcelona. His latest fatality for now is the athlete and former boxer Xavi Moya.
The lawyers Daniel Vosseler and Pedro Santamaría, who represent the widow and two children of the victim, said this Tuesday that we cannot speak of “an accident”, but rather of “reckless homicide and abandonment of functions” by the City Council due to “ to the unfortunate state and signage” of the space where the accident occurred. The family has collected documentary evidence to try to support the accusations.
On the night of October 7, Xavi Moya rode his motorcycle onto Aragó Street, on the corner of Sicília. He continued in a straight line, without anything alerting him that a bike path began right there. Seven rubber dividers, as well as the flexible polyurethane vertical post that signaled that this part of the road was for cyclists, had disappeared. In Aragó alone, at least 56 of these bollards and 22 posts are missing, as this newspaper has verified.
At the point of the accident there remained a single, isolated, black, “undetectable” rubber separator. The motorcyclist collided with the protection and died from the impact. Only then did the Urban Police put up a cone to mark the bollard, which was removed shortly after. Three days later, the City Council painted yellow stripes to channel traffic in the area. This is revealed by the images collected by the family itself.
The report from the Urban Police, in the hands of the head of the Court of Instruction 17 of Barcelona, which is investigating the events, does not attribute any responsibility to the victim, “neither excessive speed nor negligent driving,” the lawyers say. Before and after the athlete's death, this point had recorded numerous accidents, at least seven recent ones (four of whose victims will testify in court).
Anyone who travels the more than 5.5 kilometers of Aragó Street will not be surprised by its high accident rate, any time of day, any day of the year. It is advisable to exercise extreme caution at several intersections, especially at the intersection with Sicília Street, where Xavi Moya's fatal accident occurred. This fateful place was the worst in the city in 2021, with 23 accidents. In 2022 his position on the blacklist improved a little, but...
But, even so, Aragó with Sicília recorded 14 accidents last year, and was still among the worst black spots in the city. And everything indicates that in 2023 he will once again lead the statistics. There are two issues that determine whether a crossing is a black point or not. Do you register ten or more accidents with injuries in less than twelve months? Is the area where all these accidents occur less than 15 meters away?
This intersection more than meets those two criteria. And she's not the only one. According to the statistics of the Urban Guard, the profusion of accidents in Aragon at the height of Muntaner, Balmes, Pau Claris or Casanova also draws attention (20, 16, 14 and 13 accidents, respectively, during 2021). Or in Aragon with Roger de Llúria, de nuevo Pau Claris, Paseo de Gràcia y Entença (15, 14, 13 and 13, last year).
A total of 23 people died in 2022 in traffic accidents in Barcelona. In addition, there were 9,040 bruises, 170 of them seriously. The gold of this sad podium went to the Eixample district (“the worst in accidents in Europe, with 3,000 accidents a year,” according to the lawyers). Sant Martí and Sants were silver and bronze. Distractions lead the causes (of the 7,202 accidents during the course, 1,625 had this reason).
Not respecting traffic lights or safety distances, turning or changing lanes negligently are other reasons. Of the 23 deaths in 2022, 15 were on a motorcycle (and one more on a moped); a driver, the occupant of a car and five pedestrians completed the list. The reports highlight the vulnerability of motorists and pedestrians, but not the poor signage or poor condition of the road alleged by the Moya family.
Aragó and Gran Via are two of the longest streets in Barcelona (in Catalonia and in Spain). It is not strange, then, that they are also two of the ones with the most accidents in the Catalan capital. It is striking, however, that Aragó speaks directly to the Gran Via, which with its 13 kilometers doubles its length, less than six. La Vanguardia has carried out a pedestrian inspection (because it was done on foot) of the 5.5 kilometers of this artery.
A bike lane runs through Aragó from the intersection of Rambla Guipúscoa and Lope de Vega to Tarragona Street. At least 56 rubber separators (like the one that unbalanced Xavi Moya) have been unmoored or are about to do so. In some cases, the fastening screws, now visible, are an added danger. On this same road it is also necessary to replace 22 flexible poles, made of polyurethane and with two reflective rings.
To gauge the lack of 56 bollards on Aragó Street, it must be taken into account that its cycle path is not segregated with these elements from end to end. From Casanova Street to Nàpols, for example, the presence of 116 containers and battery parking areas for motorcycles act as segregators. The rubber bollards disappear again after Independència and do not reappear until crossing the Meridiana.
The absence of a post to mark the bike lane and the presence of an isolated bollard, black and invisible at night due to the lack of reflective elements or white paint due to the effect of scratches, could have been decisive in the former boxer's accident. The case is in the hands of the 17th Investigative Court, but there is something irremediable, as Xavi Moya's widow says in a broken voice: “A husband, a father, a great person has died.”
