TRAFFIC police will be out in force this week to crack down on driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
They will set up extra breathalysing points until this coming Sunday, December 21 inclusive and are expected to stop and test at least six million drivers, as they did over the same period last year.
Drink-driving is less common nowadays, reports the Guardia Civil, having dropped from 5% to 1.7% since the year 2001.
But 'drug-driving' is on the increase, they warn, with more and more motorists involved in accidents found to have consumed, in the main, cannabis, and also cocaine and other stimulants on some occasions.
Even more dangerously, some drivers who are caught are found to have been consuming both drugs and alcohol, a potentially fatal combination even without being behind a wheel.
Just over a quarter of drivers killed in car accidents across Europe are found to have been drinking, but in terms of distance covered in kilometres, motorists on only 1% of European roads are found to be at least double the drink-driving limit for Spain.
This is currently 0.3 grams per litre of blood for men and 0.2 for women, compared to 0.35 in the UK.
In Spain, it is standard procedure to breathalyse all drivers involved in serious accidents, whether fatal or not and, in 100,000 cases, they found 5,131 – 5.13% - had been drinking previously.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com