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Surely you have heard that "the amber light of the traffic lights is to accelerate, and not to stop braking".

This action, normally, is a savagery since, due to the sequence of our traffic lights, the next thing that will appear will be the red one, prohibiting the passage.

Therefore, whenever we can do it safely, it is advisable to slow down and stop.

And the same can be said of the increasingly numerous, and not without controversy, traffic light cameras

that capture cars when they pass them on red.

That said, the little light in question has become the focus of controversy after the DGT itself has published an article in its magazine

Tráfico

, entitled

'The danger is in amber'

and in which it points out that, in cities like Burgos , the danger of the amber phase has been verified

and some times of these traffic lights have been suppressed or modified,

Petition to the cities

The commotion created has forced the body led by Pere Navarro to define its position and

clarify that it does not intend to suppress the amber light, but it has made the main cities aware of the danger it can cause in certain situations,

so that these "analyze which are those conflictive points in which it may be interesting to eliminate the amber for the driver".

"Amber is perfectly regulated in our circulation regulations and

the DGT in no case intends to eliminate it from our cities,"

said the agency's deputy director general of Mobility and Technology, Jorge Ordás, in statements to Europa Press.

In amber for the car, green for the pedestrian

The problem occurs, he pointed out, "in those sections of road where there are several lanes without an intersection or several lanes with a right turn, and in the same place there is a flashing amber traffic light for the vehicle and a traffic light for the pedestrian in green.

In that case, both feel that they have priority and a contradictory message is generated in which the vulnerable user, the pedestrian, will always lose,"

he added.

In this regard, he stressed that it must be borne in mind that on "those multi-lane roads, the driver who drives on the left

is sometimes blocked by a large vehicle and this prevents him from seeing the pedestrian who is crossing the road because has seen a green traffic light",

which can lead to a collision.

In 2020, 35 pedestrians were killed at traffic lights

The final objective of the analysis proposed to the cities is, as he added, to avoid deaths and injuries due to being run over.

According to the DGT, in 2020, 35 pedestrians died and 198 were hospitalized after being run over at a traffic light crossing

.

In 2019, 47 pedestrians were run over and 317 hospitalized, "alarming data and the reason why this problem deserves reflection."

In addition,

Ordás considers it "positive" that this debate has been generated

, since the most controversial points will be analyzed with the aim that "pedestrians cease to be the main victims and injured users."

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