Variable speed and more controls: the Government's plan to stop accidents on the AP-7

BarcelonaEvery day on the AP-7 there are, on average, two accidents with victims. There are 700 accidents – the vast majority (654) of a minor nature – which can quickly cause hours and hours of traffic jams. In fact, drivers lost 3,700 hours in traffic jams and queues in 2019 on this Catalan motorway, before the release of tolls in 2021. Now, the hours of traffic jams have almost doubled and the 700 accidents recorded last year represent the highest figure in the world. In order to try to stop the increase in accidents on this road, the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, explained this Wednesday that variable speed will be implemented on a stretch of about 150 kilometres that will go from Maçanet de la Selva to El Vendrell.

This is one of the measures that the Government plans to introduce to reduce accidents on this motorway, as well as carrying out works on complementary and incorporation lanes, more controls and radars and a new predictive accident system through Artificial Intelligence (AI). "We want to anticipate the accidents that may occur," he said this Wednesday from El Vendrell, where a safety meeting was held. Parlon has also shown herself in favour of a greater presence of the Mossos at road controls.

On Tuesday there was a new demonstration of the chaos that can occur in the blink of an eye on the AP-7 with two truck accidents almost at the same point in Vilafranca (one of them was transporting pigs) that caused more than five kilometres of queues. All this, on the same day that a truck driver died after being run over on this motorway, near Reus, after getting out of the vehicle in an accident with another truck. In addition, The Carnival weekend was tragic, with nine deaths on the roads, two of them on the AP-7. They were two very young girls, one 21 and the other 16.

But what is happening on the AP-7? To try to answer the question, it is necessary to travel back to the release of tolls in 2021. The free road has opened the doors to everyone and this has caused a 40% increase in mobility, including heavy vehicles. As a result, accidents have also increased by similar percentages. Now the AP-7 is an "overused" road, in the words of the road safety and mobility coordinator of the Catalan Traffic Service, Òscar Llatje. "The increase in traffic is a fact, there is not room for everyone," he admits. The director of the mobility area of the RACC, Cristian Bardají, agrees, stating that the motorway "is being asked for more than it can give."

Not all the consequences of this large volume of cars are negative. For example, fatal accidents have decreased because, with more traffic jams, people are driving less. In fact, Llatje always says that in an ideal world there would be motorways like the AP-7 everywhere, as they are safer than two-way roads for the simple fact that the most critical collision, which is the head-on collision, is eliminated. Bardají points out that, in the RACC studies, this motorway never appears among the roads with the highest concentration of serious accidents involving passenger cars, but it does involve heavy vehicles. In other words, there are more accidents, but less serious ones, as there are more "fights for space", but at lower speeds.

However, the large volume of cars also has negative consequences, such as the fact that at the slightest incident there are long queues. "Now a truck stops there in the middle and you have a kilometre-long queue," admits Llatje. One of the problems, he adds, is that the AP-7 is not well connected to other major arteries in the country. "Every time there is a cut it is very difficult to divert vehicles to other routes," he says. He gives Madrid as an example, where all the roads are properly connected. This makes it very important in Catalonia to quickly remove the damaged vehicles and reopen the entire road.

Some sources from Trànsit indicate that, before, when there were tolls, and that was the responsibility of the contractor, Abertis, there was a faster management of these moments, although the same sources indicate that fewer vehicles passed through than now. However, now the hiring of these cranes or trailers depends on the Ministry of the Interior and from Tráfico they indicate that they have had to hire support machinery for a year (although it is not their responsibility, they clarify) to be able to get the vehicles out more quickly. And there is still an added problem: when they are trucks, the cranes must be special and there are very few of these in Catalonia. This sometimes causes everything to take longer. However, Llatje remembers that resources have been increased in proportion to the increase in mobility on the road.

Older vehicles

Among the problems highlighted by Llatje and Bardají is the ageing of the vehicle fleet, which continues to rise. According to 2024 data, passenger cars are 14.5 years old on average and trucks up to 15.1, 3.4% more than in 2023. The Mossos d'Esquadra and Trànsit are, in fact, intensifying controls on heavy vehicles, but Bardají admits that this ageing makes them "more likely. Some sources from Trànsit also regret that professional drivers from other countries are not used to traffic in Catalonia in some cases.

In the field of solutions, Llatje points out a basic one: "That people drive less and avoid unnecessary trips." He also admits that all this is linked, for example, to an improvement of the railway network. Trànsit has also been testing measures, such as regulating the flow of trucks - and always driving in the right lane on Sundays -, limiting speed or installing more radars.

The most critical point in terms of traffic jams is the junction of the AP-7 with the C-58 and other roads in the Vallès Occidental. Here they will also test new lane control and traffic regulation measures without touching the infrastructure. In 2025, 99 accidents with victims have been recorded on the AP-7 in just over two months, three of them fatal.