the history of the first radar in Spain

Do you know how many people died in 2024 in traffic accidents?

1,154.

An “unaffordable” figure, in the words of Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Minister of the Interior who gave the press conference in which the data was made public. In total, 14 more people died than in 2023 and the number has been growing slowly since 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic significantly reduced displacement. In the last decade, Spain moves on the border of the 1,000 deaths but it cannot continue to lower this figure.

Now imagine multiplying that number by four.

And more or less we will have the number of deaths recorded in 1964. That year, in Spain there were 3,803 deaths recorded on the road. But in addition, 82,953 people were injured of varying severity. In total, 79,494 accidents were recorded. Of these, it is estimated that 31.63% of drivers were traveling at a “dangerous speed,” according to the Accident Statistical Yearbook.

The time had come to take action.

And those measures brought the first traffic radar seen in Spain.

This was the first radar

It is no coincidence that the DGT speaks of 1964 as the key year that ended up opening the door to the radars in Spain. That year, they point out on their websitethe magazine Black and White explained what a “cinemometer” was, about which they said that “this new device records the number of vehicles that pass a certain place on a road and at the same time indicates the speed they are traveling at.”

However, it would not be until 1968 when the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard saw a device that they must have felt had come from the sky. Until then, agents used a system… let’s call it precarious.

Before radars existed, Civil Guard cars had a speedometer in the right headlight. The driver would then approach the offending car and keep pace. From the passenger side, a photograph was taken showing the speed at which the vehicle was traveling and the offending car.

It was in 1968, however, when radars made an appearance. After the first tests, the agents began to mount the equipment in the cars. The ones chosen were the Renault 10 and the Seat 124 that the Civil Guard used daily but they had to carry a luggage rack to be able to transport the enormous devices.

These consisted of a radio system that, using microwaves, was capable of estimating the speed at which a vehicle was moving. This acted together with another device, known as photocontrolwho was in charge of taking the photograph so that there was evidence of the offending vehicle.

At the end of the day, the film rolls from the camera had to be sent to the Traffic Headquarters to be developed and, later, printed. The time of taking, the date and the speed at which the vehicle was being driven at that time were recorded in the photograph. The system was not very different from the current one therefore.

The devices also had other problems. They could only be used on completely flat ground. If this was not the case, the calibration began to make errors. In addition, they were heavy to transport and, obviously, could only be used when stationary. It was something like having to install a fixed radar every day.

That made the management of fines was especially cumbersome. Every day, the agents who had to perform these functions had to travel to the indicated place. Once there, all the data related to the control had to be entered by hand. With each change of road, the agent covered himself with a black curtain to prevent any photos from being obscured by their change. Six hours after keeping the radar in operation, the agent had to spend another two hours writing reports about what happened.

They explain on the DGT website that since the number of these devices was minimal and there was very little knowledge about them, the Civil Guard had to send its agents to France or Germany to recycle their knowledge.

Those first radars began to spread from Madrid and Barcelona and little by little, already in the 70stheir number was expanding. The margin for committing an infraction was low since the radars could not detect vehicles traveling above 150 km/h. In those days, only a handful of cars could exceed this speed.

What was said in those moments? Little thing. Things from a country that was experiencing a dictatorship in those days, so the dissenting voices tended to zero… at least in the media. In fact, the arrival of these devices was praised, pointing out The Vanguard that, now, drivers had to circulate “as it should be”.

Photo | DGT

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