The accident rate: more accidents on Wednesdays, in the afternoon and in December

It is neither the free road that vertebra Gipuzkoa from south to north. Kilometer 0 was born in Madrid, accesses the territory from Navarra after passing through Alsasua and currently concludes in Lasarte-Aoria at kilometer 454, although until 2010 he continued his journey through San Sebastián to conclude in Irun. There are 49 kilometers in Guipuzcoan territory traveled by thousands of people daily and supports a great traffic density. It crosses great populations such as Andoain, Tolosa or the entire Goierri, distributes the circulation that comes and goes from Pamplona, ​​is the link between Donostialdea and that part of the territory and is also the path of passage for those who complete the transit between France and southern Gipuzkoa. It is the most busy road in the territory and also the one that records the most accidents, with more than one a day.

For contextualizing the amount of vehicles that circulate every day by the NI, the traffic intensity of the AP-8 when passing through Elgoibar before the bifurcation of Arrasate or Bilbao Southern sense or after the Union Sense San Sebastián is 35,072 daily vehicles in both directions, according to the data of the meters that the Diputación has. The stretch between Orio and Donostia counts 48,691 vehicles per day and that of the Biriatou bridge, 29,393.

In the NI are 45,048 the vehicles that pass daily at the height of Ira in both directions and the data reaches up to 73,213 at the height of Andoain, being the most busy point of all Gipuzkoa. In short, we talk about a road with a very high density that suffers from accidents and daily withholdings.

More than one accident a day. Between January 1, 2023 and March 31, 2025, the Basque Government Traffic Directorate opened a total of 857 parts of accidents in the Ni, which is equivalent to an average of one per day –1.04, exactly – and that left seven deaths in that period. There were 385 in 2023, 388 in 2024 and 84 the first quarter of this year.

Two outstanding black points. The usual users of the ni surely have identified the most conflicting points. According to the Trafikoa registration, the exact point where they occurred more accidents was at kilometer 445, in the environment of Andoain, where connections with the A-15 are produced where this route takes height to go to Pamplona and, in the opposite direction, where it descends until it flows into the NI. In those hundred meters a total of 21 accidents occurred in both directions ..

If we limit the analysis to sections of one hundred meters, the aforementioned is also the one with the greatest accident with a total of 42 accidents. That is, a distance that represents 2% of the extension of the NI in Gipuzkoa concentrated 4.9% of all claims.

There are several sections that suffer recurring accidents, but two stand out. On the one hand, the four kilometers that run between the entrance to Olaberria and its industrial zone until after the Beasain tunnel concentrated 110 accidents, 12.8% of the total.

On the other hand, and returning to the environment of Andoain, the four kilometers between the area prior to the knots of the A-15 and after the deviation of the Urumea highway, which receives 70,000 vehicles per day, are the ones that accumulated the most accidents with 124, 14.47% of the total. They were practically the same sense of Donostia as Vitoria. In short, those eight kilometers registered more than a quarter of all accidents of the Ni, 27.27% in particular.

The Diputación de Gipuzkoa is preparing the execution of a new link at that point, at the entrance of the Urumea Highway – the one that comes from Astigarraga – to the NI, to improve the fluidity of the traffic and avoid the usual retentions. The solution consists in replacing the output with a current lane to a double lane with a loop -shaped viaduct.

Causes of accidents. Of the 857 accidents that occurred, Ertzaintza did not have a defined opinion about why it occurred in 82 cases. In many others, there were various causes that converged at the origin of accidents. In the vast majority, the bad practices of the driver at the wheel were key. The most repeated was the inappropriate speed, which appears in 22% of the total accidents. In second position, with practically the same percentage –21.3% – is the distracted or unraveling driving. The obstacle on the road was the third most repeated cause, in 15% of accidents, closely followed by the error of not maintaining the safety distance between vehicles (12.4%).

Seven people lost their lives in five fatal accidents that occurred in the or between January 1, 2023 and March 31, 2025, two of them motorists. In three of those accidents, the inadequate speed was one of the causes of the incident while in an accident the Ertzaintza did not obtain a definite opinion, in another at the speeding the distraction was added to the wheel and in the last case, the most tragic where three people died at the height of Ordizia, the driver who agreed past midnight to the or in the opposite direction and impacted frontally against another vehicle. The reckless driving was the other reason attributed to that accident.

The presence of alcohol in drivers was the eleventh more frequent cause (3%) in accidents in the NI and drugs were only present in five accidents (0.6%), although in one of them the consequences were tragic and three people lost their lives for that reason in the aforementioned sinister.

More frequent has been the accident due to the presence of an animal on the road, 23 times (2.7%). Other causes that have little to do with the driver and their expertise behind the wheel are the state of the road, causes 5.8% of accidents, or adverse weather, present in 7.1% of the accidents.

1,238 vehicles involved. In the 857 accidents 1,238 were involved, in addition to thirty animals. More than half of them – of vehicles – were cars, 54.7%, followed by various cargo vehicles that are divided into trucks of more than 10,000kg of maximum mass (15.2%), tractocamions (12.9%), vans of a maximum mass of 3,500kg (11.9%) and trucks of maximum mass of 3,500 kg (2.1%).

As for vulnerable groups, which encompasses motorists, cyclists and pedestrians, the motorcycles involved were twenty -one, 1.7% although they left two deceased, and four bicycles (0.3%).

The greatest accident, on Wednesdays and from 14.00 to 16.00. The usual driver of this road will also know in detail when retentions are formed, which coincide with the hours of entry and exit of the work centers. On the accident, Wednesday is the day of the week in which more accidents were recorded in the analyzed period, with a total of 147 and slightly ahead of Fridays (140).

The time slot with greater accidents was between 14.00 and 15.59, with 127 claims and with some advantage over the next two schedules: 102 between 16.00 and 17.59 and 103 between 18.00 and 19.59. In the early hours of the day, the stripes from 6.00 to 7.59 and from 8.00 to 9.59 had the same number of accidents, 94 each.

As for the months, those that contain holiday periods are the least accidents concentrated in 2023 and 2024, with June, July and September around 50 claims. August, however, had greater accidents, especially in the second fortnight, where 65% of the 73 accidents occurred. December, with 95, was the month with more sinister.