Alex Trelinski
NEARLY one in five cars on Spanish roads involved in serious accidents in 2020 did not have a current ITV safety certificate.
Figures from the General Directorate of Traffic(DGT) said 17% of private vehicles in serious incidents involving death or injury were making illegal journeys two years ago.
That’s a 7% increase on the 2019 figure and may be partially attributed to ITV centres being closed for a time due to pandemic restrictions.
The figure for motorcyclists in major accidents without an ITV in 2020 rose by 3% to 15%.
There was a dramatic rise in ‘ITV-less’ industrial vehicles weighing up to 3.5 tons involved in accidents.
The 33% total in 2020 more than doubled the 15% figure the previous year.
The AECA-ITV association says that ITV ‘absenteeism’ is on the rise, with a 40% increase in ‘recent months’.
No reason has been given for the trend.
AECA-ITV association managing director, Guillermo Magaz, said: “Vehicles get more defects over time and ITVs are necessary to detect faults so that they can be corrected.”
He added that evidence showed that older cars without an ITV were involved in a higher proportion of accidents.
Spain has one of the oldest average ages for cars on the road in Europe coming in at over 13 years.
That’s a year above the Europe average which is something that ‘should concern us’, according to the AECA-ITV.
READ MORE:
- DGT proposes to automatically issue fines for vehicles with no ITV circulating on Spanish roads
- ITV backlog does not exempt drivers from being fined, say Spain’s DGT
- ITV EXPLAINER: What you need to know about changes to Spain’s vehicle safety checks from June 1
