“The second that saves you.” This is the motto of the new awareness campaign on road safety that has launched the Zaragoza City Council with the aim of increasing the awareness of citizens and reducing accidents in the city. On this occasion, it is aimed at the most vulnerable users of the road, pedestrians, cyclists and scooters, and will be disseminated through social networks, banners and digital mupis.
The initiative affects above all the need to circulate paying full attention to driving and being especially attentive in times of crossing streets or making turns. This was explained by the Minister of Environment and Mobility, Tatiana Gaudes, who has pointed out the importance of being attentive “to all the details that arise”, because “that second can be decisive to save any life.”
More than 2,800 accidents in 2024
This campaign arrives after a 2024 in the 2,850 claims that had as a cause an infraction, according to the local police data. The number of abuses that has motivated the creation of the initiative, because 245 accidents had pedestrians involved. Of these, 111 were produced by crossing the traffic lights or crossing outside the enabled steps.
Despite these figures, the delegated councilor for Road Safety, Ruth Bravo has stated that Saragossa It is still one of the “safer” cities in traffic with a “descending” trend of accidents. Thus, the 3,060 sinister recorded during the previous year ended with a balance of two deceased people, 132 serious injuries and 995 injured.
Bravo has expressed that the decrease since the year 2000 where 30 fatalities were produced is due to the measures taken in the City Council within the urban road safety plan such as light beacons in risk areas or urban interventions within the street plan.
New campaign from September
This campaign, which is carried out in collaboration with progress and the trams, is “the prelude” to another, of much greater draft, which is intended to be launched as of September. It will have an investment of 150,000 euros and, although it is in the preparation phase, the collaboration agreement between the City of Zaragoza and the SEM of the trams will be signed in a few days. This future campaign will be expanded to all age ranges and will be disseminated by all the roads available to involve all citizens.
The Vox municipal group has stated to agree with “sensitizing the citizen”, but without “transferring all the responsibility for road safety.” This has been explained by the councilor of Vox, Eva Torres, who has pointed out that the campaign is “insufficient” and that the City Council of Zaragoza has to take “more measures and be more proactive to reduce accidentality.”
Along these lines, it has listed a series of proposals such as eliminating the stretch of the bike lane in the San Francisco Square, increasing the luminous and sound signals, and redesigning some of the zebra crossings along the tram layout to give visibility to pedestrians.
