The 6,857 accidents with victims where members of the corps had to attend represented a drop of 16.6% compared to 2019. Last year saw 8,753 people injured in accidents, some 3.1% fewer than the previous year, and 20 mortalities, three fewer than in 2022, according to the accident figures for 2023 from the City Police.
The main increase was in the number of severe injuries, up by 30.8%, partly as a result of an operational change in the procedure for traffic accidents by the Barcelona police, which improves the follow-up of people injured. Some 92% were riders and passengers on two-wheeled motor vehicles, cyclists, personal mobility vehicles and pedestrians.
As for deaths, the groups with the highest rate of mortalities were pedestrians (9) and motorcyclists (8).
The vehicles mostly involved in accidents, with 47.25% of the total, were cars, vans and taxis. The figure for personal mobility vehicles involved in accidents dropped by 10.8%.
Drink-driving the main indirect cause
The main type of accidents were rear collisions, followed by lateral collisions, with the main two direct causes being a lack of concentration and not respecting safety distances, both closely linked with rear collisions.
For indirect causes, drink-driving was the most common, even though the figure dropped by12% compared to 2022. This was the main topic in the last Barcelona Road Safety Forum, entitled “Reckless diving: the influence of alcohol and drugs”.
The location with the most accidents in the city was C/ Aragó, with four of the eight spots with the highest accident rates. Of these eight, six are to be found in the district of L’Eixample. In January last year, fines were introduced for offences recorded by 17 speed cameras, two of them in C/ Aragó, while another 28 speed warning displays were added in November, one of them in this same street.