The Servei Català de Trànsit (SCT) has detected a worrying rise in the accident rate among motorcyclists this year compared to the first seven months of last year. As explained yesterday by its director, Ramon Lamiel, this year 29 motorcycle drivers have already died on Catalan roads, a figure that is 26% higher than that registered in the same period last year and even 7% higher than the statistics of 2019.
Lamiel explained that one in five accidents occur during rush hour on weekdays and also on weekend mornings. To try to stop this worrying trend in the number of accidents, Trànsit is currently developing an intensive campaign to raise awareness and protect motorcyclists. The campaign, according to the director of the SCT, consists of "three legs": information, training and police controls on the roads by the Mossos d'Esquadra patrols.
The person in charge of the SCT has admitted that it is "difficult" to contain these accidents and has pointed out a "certain relationship between accidents and good weather". Even so, he has qualified that "it is not cause-effect". In this sense, he has specified the roads where deaths and serious injuries have been concentrated so far in 2023: the C-31, the C-32, A-2, the B-20 and the N-340. By demarcation, he highlighted that in Girona 60% of the total accidents have been motorcycles and in Barcelona, 44%.
Lamiel specified that the most common crashes are the side (from 28 in 2022 to 53 this year) and by pursuit (24 in 2022, 29 in 2023), but also the frontal crash. He defined a profile of the victim, who in 82% of cases is a man (25 of the 29 of this 2023 were) and is between 44 and 55 years old. In seriously injured, this proportion is maintained: 134 men (120 drivers) and 20 women (12 drivers).
According to Lamiel, the objective of this new campaign is to “redirect habits”, especially with regard to middle-aged drivers.
The head of the regional area of Trànsit Metropolitana Sud of the Mossos d'Esquadra, sub-inspector Marc Patxot, assured that in addition to the complaints that are filed, they also "try to raise awareness of the risks with driving" and advise appropriate clothing.
In 2022, 42 people traveling by motorcycle died on Catalan roads, a reduction of 14.3% compared to the reference year, the pre-pandemic 2019. Also last year, as is the norm, the months from April to September were the ones that registered the highest mortality for this group, coinciding with good weather. In the past financial year, almost half of the motorcyclists killed (46%) suffered the accident alone, without the intervention of any other vehicle.
