Road traffic violations increased by more than 10% in 2023 compared to the previous year, and arrests for road crimes exceeded 40,000, mostly for driving under the influence of alcohol and lack of legal driving license.
The data is from the Annual Road Safety Report, from the National Road Safety Authority (ANSR), now revealed, which states that, in 2023, 177.7 million vehicles were inspected, with 1.6 million violations recorded, an increase of 10.3% compared to 2022.
3,000,435 drivers were inspected in person (+17% compared to 2022) and 174,718,306 vehicles were inspected by radar (+36.6%), with the document stating that “the radar system under the responsibility of ANSR ensured 93.4% of total inspection in 2023 (91.3% in the previous year)”.
The report also mentions that the violation rate — measured by dividing the total number of violations by the total number of vehicles inspected — was 0.79%, a 16.1% reduction compared to the previous year.
“Regarding the typology of violations, 58.1% of the total number recorded in 2023 corresponded to speeding, with 4.9% of violations attributed to the absence of mandatory periodic inspection. Driving under the influence of alcohol accounted for 2.3% of the total, lack of insurance represented 2.1%, mobile phone use accounted for 1.5%, and failure to wear a seatbelt had a weight of 1.3% of the total”, the document states.
Compared to 2022, the largest increase in infractions by typology was recorded in the absence of insurance, with a growth of 79.5% in 2023, followed by an increase in infractions for lack of mandatory inspection, with a growth of 38%, representing more than 80 thousand infractions.
Speeding recorded 946,956 infractions (+8.2% compared to 2022), driving under the influence of alcohol 37,685 (+9.3%), absence of insurance 34,543 (+79.5%), absence of periodic inspection 80,280 (+38%), driving while using a mobile phone 24,772 (+8.4%), failure to use a seatbelt 21,954 (+1.2%), and absence of child restraint systems 2,465 (+10.6%).
Regarding arrests for road crimes, a total of 22,299 drivers were arrested in 2023, 26.2% more than in 2022, and 14,969 drivers for driving without a legal license, 34.8% more than in 2022.
Out of the total of 40,608 arrests recorded in 2023 (+24.2%), there were also 3,340 recorded for other unspecified causes. In 2023, a total of 577 drivers had their license revoked, increasing the total to 2,987 drivers in this situation since the points-based license system came into effect in June 2016.
“Since the points-based license system came into effect until the end of 2023, 687.5 thousand drivers have lost points on their driving license”, the report states.
