Speed and excess alcohol. These are two of the main causes of death on the road in Portugal, an accident in which the country ranks 5th in the European Union (EU), according to the most recent statistics.
Much has already been said and written about the subject and, unfortunately, little progress has been made in reducing these black figures, leaving doubts as to whether it will be possible to achieve a Government objective: zero fatalities and zero serious injuries in road accidents by 2050. A wish that includes a reduction by at least 50% in the number of fatalities and serious injuries by 2030. This is what is written in the protocol Vision Zero – More Citizenship for Portugal’s Roads signed on Wednesday (24th) between the National Road Safety Authority (ANSR) and Lusoponte.
Ceremony used by the Secretary of State for Civil Protection, Rui Rocha, to announce that 12 more average speed radars will be installed in areas still being evaluated by ANSR which will increase the number of speed control structures on the national road network to more than a hundred.
However, perhaps more than radars – without denying their importance, including deterrence – It will be decisive to change the mentality of motorists. At the same event, the governor recalled that a third of deaths on the roads are associated with speeding and that one in four fatal victims drove with excess alcohol in their blood. Not to mention using your cell phone while you’re behind the wheel.
These are behaviors that do not change with radars or the use of Artificial Intelligence in traffic control and accident prevention, but with a change in the way of driving. And this doesn’t change with government impositions or radar alerts. Unfortunately.
According to the European Commission, Portugal reduced the number of deaths per million inhabitants by 5%: from 58 in 2024 (a total of 618, citing the Road Safety Statistical Information Portal) to 55 last year. It is an evolution, but a small one, since in the EU the average is 45 deaths per million inhabitants.
In the analysis of EC data, referring to 2024, we learned where people die most on national roads: rural areas continued to be the most dangerous, with 53% of deaths compared to 38% in urban areas – in this particular case, it should be noted that 70% of this group of fatalities are, for example, pedestrians and cyclists – and 8% on motorways.
Given this portrait, perhaps it is worth analyzing what happens on rural roads: who is responsible for their conservation and speed control, for example. Perhaps we will still come to the conclusion that this is where more radars are really needed.
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