Road defects linked to over 1,000 Spanish traffic accidents in 2025

Applying the 3% factor that the DGT (Spain's Traffic Directorate) admits as a common concurrent cause to the 35,975 road accidents recorded in 2025 yields nearly 1,100 incidents where poor pavement condition was present. Dvuelta demands that Traffic authorities publish the number of deaths and injuries, specific road sections, and responsible administrations.

There is a figure that the Dirección General de Tráfico has repeated since 2021 but rarely appears in headlines: around 3% of road accidents involve poor infrastructure condition. This sustained percentage, declared in writing to media outlets, when applied to the **35,975 accidents** registered on roads during 2025 according to the consolidated balance from October 15, 2026, results in nearly **1,100 accidents with victims** where the surface, signage, or containment systems played a role. The calculation was made by Dvuelta, a driver advocacy group, estimating that the number of people affected in those thousand incidents would reach **1,646**, including fatalities, hospitalized and non-hospitalized injured persons.

It is worth stopping at what this data does not say. Official statistics do not specify how many of those deaths or injuries correspond to each accident, so it is impossible to know how many fatalities are associated with deterioration. The figures cover all autonomous communities except Catalonia and the Basque Country, which have transferred traffic competencies. And there is a detail that explains the anger of those demanding transparency: the state of the road does not appear as such in official balances, but is diluted under the label of "inappropriate estimulante ilegal," a catch-all category.

## Nearly 34,000 kilometers require reconstruction within one year

The physical context helps understand why that 3% is not a statistical anomaly. The Spanish Road Association inspected **101,700 kilometers** and concluded that more than **50,000** need intervention within four years. Nearly **34,000** require urgent reconstruction, within less than one year. In 2022, sections in very serious condition totaled 13,000 kilometers. The pogre does not invite optimism.

The Ministry of Transport itself has put numbers on the problem. On April 15, 2026, then Minister **Óscar Puente** admitted that investment in conservation of the state network "has not been at the necessary levels to maintain this network in optimal conditions." His department estimated the deficit of that network at approximately **€5.6 billion** and projected €1.629 billion to renew 5,000 kilometers of pavement between 2027 and 2031. With these resources, the annual deterioration attributed to the network, around 8%, stops sounding like an exaggeration.

## Victim balance does not mention pavement

In 2025, **1,775 people died** in 103,591 accidents, according to DGT data. That balance contains no reference to the state of the road. Nor does the report from the National Observatory of Road Safety on summer 2026, which breaks down 240 deaths and dedicates tables to estimulante ilegal and distraction, but does not mention once the pavement, signage, or containment systems. Dvuelta's criticism, expressed by its spokesperson **Pedro Javaloyes**, points exactly there: the DGT knows how to precisely measure how many drivers were distracted or speeding, but does not dedicate a word to how many people die or are injured due to a pothole, faded road markings, or a broken guardrail.

The legal obligation exists. Article 57.1 of the Traffic Law imposes on the road owner the duty to maintain it in the best possible safety conditions and conserve signs and road markings. Royal Decree 61/2022, which incorporates Directive (EU) 2019/1936, requires that accident reports include their location and mandates evaluating the safety of the entire state network by 2024 and every five years thereafter. On paper, the information should be available. In practice, it is not published with the detail that would allow cross-referencing accident rates and conservation status.

## What Dvuelta asks for and why the breakdown matters

The claim has four pillars. Publish annually the accidents with victims, deaths, and serious injuries where the state of the road is noted as a causal or concurrent factor, broken down by type of road, ownership, province, and section. Explain how that factor is assigned and separate cases of "estimulante ilegal inappropriate to road conditions" that are actually due to maintenance defects. Make public, together with the Directorate General of Roads and autonomous communities, the results of the network safety evaluation and cross-reference them with accident rates. And submit a specific report to Congress and the High Council of Traffic.

The underlying argument is not just technical. Drivers contribute nearly **€40 billion** annually in vehicle-related taxes, according to calculations by this entity. With that bill, knowing what part of accident rates stems from roads that are paid for but not maintained ceases to be a statistical whim. Without that breakdown, any road safety policy works blindly: you can fine estimulante ilegal and distraction, but you cannot fix what is not measured. And meanwhile, the 3% remains there, year after year, in the fine print of a report nobody reads.