Spain Takes The Lead (Again) To Make Roads Safe, Helmets Will Be Mandatory For E-Scooter Riders

Europe’s roads are considered to be the safest in the world, and Spain’s efforts in recent years are helping to secure that accomplishment.

The Spanish government recently made some significant advances to its road safety laws that will come into effect in 2022 that will impact its citizens as well as travelers. Alcohol interlocks in new passenger transport vehicles, mandatory helmets for e-scooter riders, and new speed restrictions on overtaking other vehicles are among the positive developments.

The changes, approved by the Spanish Parliament, were announced earlier this month by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), a Brussels-based independent non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the numbers of deaths and injuries in transport in Europe. 

“Despite having Europe’s best performance in reducing road deaths over the last two decades,” Antonio Avenoso, the safety council’s executive director, said in a statement, “ Spain is again taking the lead with big, bold action to improve road safety. Alcohol interlocks are one of the most effective tools for fighting drink-driving, so it’s great to see them being fitted as standard” ha said, in whole categories of new vehicles.

The European Union’s road safety success is attributed in large part to its widespread adoption of the Vision Zero or Safe System approach that takes human error into account, first put into effect in Sweden in the 1990s. The goal is to eliminate all road deaths and serious injuries globally by creating multiple layers of protection that address all the factors that play a role in crashes: infrastructure design, vehicle safety, driver behavior, safe speeds, emergency response, legislation and enforcement, so if one fails, the others will create a safety net to lessen the impact of a crash. 

New regulations in Spain will include the following: 

–All new mini-buses designed to carry more than eight people, buses and coaches will be required to be fitted with an alcohol interlock device in 2022, which coincides with new European Union rules that mandate an interface for such a device on all new types of road vehicles.  “France already requires alcohol interlocks on buses and coaches used in public transport, but Spain has gone even further than France and also included mini-buses,” the ETSC’s newsletter noted; 

–an end to a speeding exception under Spanish law that allowed cars to exceed the speed limit on certain roads in order to overtake another vehicle, as higher speeds always increase risk;

– drivers and riders of all vehicles under 18 will be subject to a zero-tolerance alcohol limit. (The ETSC noted that some other countries apply the same limit to anyone passing a driving test, regardless of age, as inexperience is a key factor in road safety, but Spain’s new law will only apply to young drivers.)  Overall in Europe, compared to the United States, legal blood alcohol concentration limits are much lower;

–e-scooter riders will have to wear helmets. Finland and Greece already have this requirement, and several other countries require younger riders to wear one. Denmark will also require helmets on e-scooters beginning in January 2022;

—tougher penalties for failure to wear a seat belt and use of a mobile phone when driving; and

– driving schools will be required to have at least one physical location, and cannot be run exclusively online

The Spanish government has been a participant in the EU Road Safety Exchange, a partnership among countries to share practices, skills and experiences, as some countries started making improvements before others, and as a result, have a more robust safety system in place. 

Spain, for example, recently hosted two workshops for colleagues from Greece and Romania, which looked at motorcycle and infrastructure safety, according to the ETSC, which manages the initiative on behalf of the European Commission. 

For more information, click here and here.