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Distracted driving is behind more than a quarter of fatal accidents in Murcia this year
A week-long Guardia Civil campaign targeting high-risk behaviour on the roads gets under way as the figures make sobering reading
More than one in four fatal road accidents in the Region of Murcia so far in 2026 have involved a distracted driver. Of the 22 fatal accidents recorded on urban and interurban roads in the region between January and now, six, or 27%, have had distraction as a contributing cause. Last year the figure was 12 fatal accidents out of 53, representing 23% of the total.Those numbers sit in the context of a broader road safety picture that has been giving cause for concern. June this year saw road deaths in Spain hit a 15-year high and data from 2024 showed that almost half of drivers killed on Murcia's roads had alcohol or drugs in their system. Distraction is now joining those factors as a persistent and growing concern.
In response, the Guardia Civil's Traffic Group launched a special control and surveillance campaign on Sunday October 5 that will run until Saturday October 11. Some 240 officers will be deployed across the region, checking an estimated 16,000 vehicles over the course of the week. During the equivalent campaign last year, 15,197 vehicles were checked and 356 drivers received citations, representing 2.34% of those stopped. Local police from 27 municipalities across the region are also taking part, having checked 5,686 vehicles and cited 4.34% of drivers during the same period in 2025.
The campaign focuses specifically on mobile phone use and other forms of inattention at the wheel, which have been the most frequent contributing cause of road accidents nationally since 2017, both in terms of overall accidents and fatal cases.
The Association of People with Spinal Cord Injury and other Physical Disabilities of the Region of Murcia (ASPAYM) is also involved, with volunteers attending the campaign's launch. Their presence is a reminder that the consequences of a moment's distraction can be life-changing in ways that go well beyond the accident itself.
Distracted driving has shown some improvement over the longer term: the proportion of fatal accidents linked to it fell by fifteen percentage points between 2022 and 2025. But the 2026 figures suggest that progress may be stalling, and this week's enforcement operation is a direct response to that.
You might also be interested in: Distracted driving blamed for a third of Málaga crashes with victims
Image: Pixabay
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