Overview
- The Dirección General de Tráfico credits the two-decade points system with a roughly 60% fall in road fatalities since its creation, with 1,785 deaths recorded in 2024, the most recent consolidated year.
- Since the scheme began drivers have lost about 72.2 million points in more than 20 million sanctions, and in 2024 alone 4.5 million points were removed while almost 30,000 drivers lost the validity of their licences.
- Speeding, drunk driving, running red lights, mobile-phone use and failing to use seatbelts or child restraints are the five leading causes of point losses, with speeding accounting for roughly 24.4 million points lost from 2006–2024.
- Authorities have used re-education courses as a recovery tool, delivering 141,994 courses and reporting that 88.4% of course completers avoided further sanctions for six months after completion.
- Support groups and victim associations praise the system’s impact but driver organisations point to legal gaps, notification flaws and repeat offenders, and lawmakers reformed the law in 2011 and 2022 and are considering further changes such as lower blood-alcohol limits.