BarcelonaLast year, up to 11,626 traffic accidents were registered in the metropolitan area of Barcelona that resulted in injuries or fatalities. Although in the last decade this figure has been reduced by a thousand accidents, the reality is that since the plummet during the pandemic, the number of traffic accidents with victims has not stopped increasing . This is the conclusion of the study carried out by the Metròpoli Institute, which shows how in 2023 15,000 people were injured in traffic accidents in the Barcelona metropolis, 46 of whom died as a result of the accident. In fact, the metropolitan area of Barcelona concentrates almost half (48%) of the fatalities recorded in Catalonia as a whole last year.
In this territory last year there were 14,767 victims of traffic accidents (slight serious or fatal), that is about 200 more than in 2022 but around 4,000 less than before the pandemic. While it is true that the number of fatalities has decreased slightly – last year there were eight fewer than in 2022 – it is worrying that the number of serious injuries due to traffic accidents in the metropolitan area of Barcelona has shot up by 20% in just one year, going from 410 serious injuries in 2022 to 503 last year. To find a number of serious injuries as high as this, you have to go back eight years, to 2015, when 513 were registered. As for minor injuries, the balance of the year 2023 has also been higher than the previous one , with 131 more victims and reaching 14,218.
Motorcyclist, male and middle-aged
As has been repeated for years, motorists continue to be the most vulnerable on the road. In fact, the study is clear about this, stating that “the motorcycle continues to be overwhelmingly overrepresented in traffic accidents compared to its relative weight in everyday mobility” in the Barcelona metropolitan area. In this regard, motorcycle and moped users account for almost 50% of the total number of serious injuries and deaths in the metropolitan area as a whole. A scandalous proportion considering that in 2023 trips by motorbike accounted for less than 4% of the total.
Regarding the profile of the victims of traffic accidents, they continue to suffer more accidents than them. Specifically, last year 61% of traffic accident victims in the metropolitan area were men, a proportion that rises above 70% when we talk about victims who were riding motorcycles or bicycles. On the other hand, the average age of the victims has grown considerably, since in 2009 it was 35.6 years old on average, while last year it was over 40 years old on average. According to the Metropolis Institute’s report, this trend is due, in part, to the same demographic evolution of the population of the metropolitan area as a whole, which is experiencing a progressive ageing.
However, the average age of the victims varies slightly according to the type of vehicle used: in most cases it is between 30 and 37 years old, but in the case of pedestrians it climbs up to 45, while the average age of traffic accident victims driving heavy vehicles such as trucks is he is 55 years old.
Four deaths in one day
Four people died this Saturday in Catalonia due to traffic accidents. Two young people have died early in the morning when they left the road with their car in Cambrils. A motorcyclist has also died after colliding with a roundabout sign between Calafell and Cunit and in La Jonquera a woman has died after being hit by a heavy truck.
