The special Easter traffic operation ended with 30 deaths in 28 accidents, three more than the same time last year (27 deaths). This special operation started on Friday, March 27th, at 3:00 p.m. and ended on Monday, April 6th, at midnight. Traffic officials said that 17.3 million trips were made, which is a 3.2% increase. According to data from the DGT (Spanish Directorate General of Traffic), 209 individuals have died on the roads since the start of 2016. This is 59 fewer than during the same time the previous year.
The DGT’s research shows that there were fewer deaths on motorways and dual carriageways this year than last year, with two less deaths than Easter 2015. It also says that most road traffic deaths still happen on regular roads (one lane in each direction), with 9 out of 10 fatalities. There have also been more accidents and deaths involving pedestrians, including head-on, rear-end, and numerous collisions.
There have been fewer deaths of motorcyclists (four, down from eight the year before), but more deaths of pedestrians (five, up from two). Passenger automobiles are still the type of vehicle that causes the most deaths. They have also gone up, with three more victims than on Easter 2025.
This year, Palm Sunday was still the bloodiest day, with six deaths. The Línea Directa Foundation did a study at the start of the Christmas season that looked at data from recent years and showed this fact. The time between 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. is the most deadly, with 11 deaths. The 35–44 and 25–34 age groups have the most deaths, with six and five deaths, respectively. The 45–54 age group has experienced a drop of six deaths.
Galicia has the most traffic deaths of any autonomous community (five), whereas Catalonia and the Canary Islands saw the biggest drops (five and three deaths, respectively). There were no deaths in traffic accidents in Asturias, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Catalonia, Murcia, Ceuta, or Melilla. The DGT (Spanish Directorate General of Traffic) does say, though, that these numbers are just temporary and were gathered within 24 hours of the accidents, so more research needs to be done on all of them.
In the first three months of 2026, 196 people died.
The DGT (Spanish Directorate General of Traffic) says that these numbers reveal that more people died in traffic during Holy Week than in the first three months of 2026, when mortality fell by 22%. There were 186 deadly accidents in the first three months of the year, which killed 196 people. This is 56 less than in 2025, which means that this first quarter had the fewest road accidents ever recorded. This number doesn’t include 2021, which was greatly affected by transportation limitations because of the COVID-19 epidemic. The DGT stressed that these numbers were taken in a year when there were 4.12% more long-distance trips than the year before.
Pere Navarro, the Director General of Traffic, praised drivers, calling them “the true architects of this decrease.” DGT specialists say that a 22% reduction is strange and never happened before, especially since travel is on the rise.
Once again, regular roads are the most dangerous, causing 78.6% of deaths. However, the number of deaths in passenger cars has gone down by 31%, from 131 in 2025 to 90 now. Cyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists, and scooter riders are currently 45% of all road deaths. There are more motorcyclists and pedestrians than there are cyclists, though.
People who are hurt still don’t use safety systems. The DGT (Spanish Directorate General of Traffic) says that 26 people died without wearing seat belts: 23 in cars, one in a van, and two in trucks. There was also a cyclist and a motorcyclist who weren’t wearing helmets. In Castile and León, Castile-La Mancha, Extremadura, and Galicia, the number of victims has gone up. In the rest of the country, it has gone down.
March is the most interesting month of the quarter, with numbers that the Traffic Authority called “unusual.” In 31 days, there were 68 fatal accidents that killed 71 people. This is 31 fewer deaths than in the same month in 2015, a 30% drop. This month, mobility went up by 10.85%, with 38.8 million long-distance trips.
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