Spain has now reduced the speed limit on major rural roads to 90km/h (56mph), from 100km/h.
The measure took effect on Tuesday 29th January, after the authorities changed more than 2,700 road signs.
The aim is to get into the safest group of EU countries for rural drivers: below 30 deaths per million people.
What is changing in Spain?
The new 90km/h limit applies to major rural roads, which are described in Spanish as “conventional or secondary roads”.
In the past five years, Spanish RTVE news reports, they accounted for up to 80% of fatal road accidents.
The death toll on such roads in 2018 was 877. In 40% of fatal accidents one or more vehicles had swung out of its lane, and 27% involved head-on collisions.
The government aims to get the number of deaths below the 39-per-million figure that Spain registered in 2017.
Data for 2017 from the EU’s European Transport Safety Council shows that road deaths were lowest in Sweden and the UK, per million inhabitants.
