‘Zero tolerance’ on road deaths, says minister

20 July 2004

MADRID – Spain should aim for “zero tolerance” to reduce the number of deaths on the roads, the Interior Minister said Tuesday.

José Antonio Alonso said the reduction in the number of people killed on the roads in Spain this year was “not good enough”.

There were 199 fewer people killed in crashes in the first six months of 2004, compared with the same period last year.

But Alonso said: “On the horizon we should look to zero tolerance of accidents and their consequences.”

The minister was speaking in Madrid Tuesday at a press conference with victims of road crashes and the director general of the Spanish Traffic Department, Pere Navarro.

Alonso said the fall in the number of deaths this year “improved the statistics but is not enough.”

He said the government was proposing a licence points scheme, a system of better detection radar schemes, tougher penalties for drink-drivers and the “repression of anti-social drivers who are doing a lot of damage”.

Spain has one of the worst records on fatal road crashes.

The main reasons for the high level of deaths on the road are drink-driving and speeding.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news