The risk of death or serious injury is multiplied by two when comparing accidents that occur with vehicles 10 to 15 years old, in relation to vehicles less than five years old, which is why the proper maintenance of all safety elements The vehicle becomes an essential activity to combat accidents.
This situation is of great concern to the General Directorate of Traffic, which is why the annual calendar of campaigns includes one dedicated exclusively to the monitoring of the conditions of vehicles on roads. This new campaign will take place from today Monday and will last until Sunday, January 26.
During this week, the agents of the Traffic Association of the Civil Guard and the rest of local and regional police who join the campaign will pay special attention to the proper maintenance and tuning of all vehicle safety elements: tires, brakes, lights, signaling, windshield without damage …
To the surveillance that the agents carry out, the DGT will use the control and monitoring systems that it has installed on the road (license plate readers) to check if the vehicles that circulate go with the ITV in force. In case of detecting that a vehicle does not carry it in force, the corresponding complaint will be made.
The correct maintenance of a vehicle contributes decisively to ensure adequate safety conditions throughout its useful life. These safety conditions are periodically verified in the technical inspections and hence their verification. In the last telematic verifications carried out by Traffic, it was detected that 1.64% of the vehicles that circulated did not carry the ITV in force.
The great forgotten
The tires constitute the only and decisive contact with the road. They are responsible for ensuring adhesion in thrust, braking and lateral sliding. They also ensure that the direction of travel of the vehicle is as desired by the user and the damping of pavement imperfections. It is recommended that the groove depth be at least three millimeters. The legal limit is 1.6 millimeters.
Approximately more than one million of the vehicles, 5%, circulate with serious defects in the wheels, mainly due to a drawing depth below the legal minimum of 1.6 mm; have irregular wear due to bad suspension or incorrect alignment and circulate with wrong pressure.
In addition, vehicles related to more professional use, such as vans, have higher rates of tire defects.
It is also necessary to regularly check the cold tire pressure and the spare wheel, as well as check for possible air leaks from the valves. The cap of the same constitutes an element of tightness, so its use is essential.
Lighting
The purpose of vehicle lights is not only to see, but also to be seen, since each vehicle in circulation is, in practice, an obstacle for others, so the definition of its presence is also significant.
So that the driving is carried out in safety conditions, it is advisable to pay special attention to the use, maintenance and regulation of the headlights to get, on the one hand, to have sufficient light and, on the other, not to dazzle those who circulate through the Same public roads.
You have to keep in mind some basic tips:
- The lamps reduce their intensity with use, so they must be changed every 40,000 km. or 2 years
- The lamps must be changed two by two, because their use is symmetrical in most cases.
- It is necessary to always keep the optics clean: headlights and pilots
Other controlled aspects
In addition to lights and tires, the following will also be controlled:
- The license plate. The driver must verify that the license plates of the vehicle do not present obstacles that impede or hinder their reading and identification, are not damaged or tampered with. Evading the illegible registration is a serious infraction with a sanction of 200 euros and no deduction of points, but manipulating the registration plate to try to evade the rule fraudulently can lead to a fine of 6,000 euros and the loss of six points.
- Windshield. The driver must verify that the windshield does not present any damage, since it is a fundamental part in the structural resistance of the vehicle, in the efficiency of the 'airbag' and in that of being a support for cameras and sensors of driving assistance devices.
- The documentation of the vehicle that must be carried, in addition to the mandatory driving license, is:
-Permission of the vehicle in which the technical data of the vehicle and the data of its owner (or an authorization of the Traffic Department in his absence) appear.
– ITV card and corresponding sticker, visible on the front moon.
