This 2023 the Servei Català de Trànsit, in collaboration with the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Barcelona Urban Police and numerous local police forceshas carried out specific campaigns to combat the distractions at the wheel. In recent years, the predominant concurrent cause in 25% of road accidents in Catalonia is losing attention while driving, a figure that has dropped slightly, up to 24%, so far in 2023.
Furthermore, 88% of distractions, according to open disciplinary files, are due to the use of a mobile phone while driving, similar data.s in the last five years Although travel through road went down during the pandemic. For this reason, Trànsit is concerned and wants to put measures in place to reduce this accident rate.
“If the telephone is a distracting element in daily life due to the immediacy and addictive behavior it generates, in the car it is no exception and its use is harmful” because of the risk it entails, for oneself and for others when traveling on the road, explains Ramon Lamiel, director of the Catalan Transit Service. The rest of the sanction files for distractions are for using visual screens incompatible with driving, such as tablets, headphones or touching the browser, among others.
Lamiel points out that distraction is the concurrent cause of 5% of fatal accidents or accidents that left serious injuries and that is why “we have to intervene on this factor.” which is one of the most prevalent. Thus, Trànsit, together with Mossos and other police forces, carried out a specific campaign between April 24 and 30, 2023 to detect distractions behind the wheel as well as jumping red lights.either.
Increase in complaints
Specifically, 3,410 complaints were filed for these issues, the most numerous, 1,334, being those of not respecting traffic lights. However, 985 drivers were fined for driving with their mobile phone in their hand or keeping it on. between the helmet and the ear in the case of motorcyclists. Six months later, between October 2 and 8, they repeated this campaign to avoid this type of distractions and an increase in total complaints was observed, reaching 3,669.
The fines for jumping a red light went down to 1,000, while the rest went up and the fines for driving with a mobile phone skyrocketed to 1,422. The figures show an increase in the use of this device while driving, with the risks it poses to traffic, as Lamiel details: “You canIt is driving without thinking when you go from point A to B it is inevitablebut you can never lose the visual control that gives coherence to driving, if you lose it you crash, since you are traveling several meters at high speed without seeing the road”.
According to Trànsit data, there are between 300 and 400 daily complaints for distractions, so the objective is to reduce it with police campaigns throughout Catalonia due to other actions of the Mossos d’Esquadra, such as stand on a bridge and see the drivers who use their cell phones behind the wheel, in addition to using ‘spy bikes’. Currently there are 4 vehicles of these characteristics that allow driving on the road, sometimes assisted by police patrols, which control offenders “in an easier way, since they stand next to the car and see what happens inside.”
Inside the car
Trànsit also plans to expand the cameras with Artificial Intelligence that it has on the B-23 and C-58. Using algorithms, possible offenders who do not wear a seat belt are captured, with an easier recognition pattern, and those who use a cell phone, with more complexity. Of all the images taken, 1% go through human control that must verify the violation. Lamiel stressed that the machine “is learning” and therefore, when the system is reliable and “guarantee” Due to the resources involved in the sanctions, the objective is to expand its automatic use in the metropolitan ring of Barcelona, always with a strategy placement as with radars.
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“Distraction must be addressed and this system can be one of them on roads with greater capacity where there are serious accident or traffic management problems,” says Lamiel. From Trànsit we are aware of that the key is to provide better information to reduce accidents and that is why they try to “get inside the vehicle.” How drivers get more information from the navigator, in addition to the radio and social networks, the intention is to pay attention to “the voice” than messages to ensure safe circulation.
“We continue with the message that the cell phone must be parked inside the car, but since there are those who get information through the navigator, we must guarantee that these messages arrive by voice, so that there is no risk when manipulating it,” says the director of Trànsit, who adds that contacts have been initiated with navigation companies to find out the best way to obtain this technology and thus eradicate distraction while driving.