The highway still has not arrived, and the N-122 national highway continues to feed the sinister statistics of one of the most dangerous roads in Spain, according to sources from the Ministry of Transport.
Eight people have died this year in the 14 serious accidents recorded on the asphalt of this road that runs through Castilla y León from east to west —from the border with Aragón to the border with Portugal—, while projects to convert it entirely into the A highway -11 remain parked.
Its 467 kilometers of layout have claimed almost 600 lives in the last three decades.
Its regular users and the residents of the towns crossed by this road insist on reclaiming the dual carriageway to avoid risks on a road with many trucks and especially dangerous in winter.
The last death occurred last week in Fonfría (Zamora):
The mayor of Fonfría, Sergio López, regrets that his town (700 inhabitants), like so many others, is crossed by this asphalt: "It is annoying and very dangerous, in Fonfría you have to cross the road, on a straight stretch where you don't usually respect the speed, to go to the pharmacy, with what that means for the elderly, ”he explains.
It is enough to use the N-122 towards Traspinedo (Valladolid, 1,150 inhabitants), place of the penultimate fatal case, to appreciate the danger.
A sign, with "12/15/2022" written on the back, certifies, along with a new guardrail, that something has happened.
There, three days earlier, a man died after colliding two cars, something common on a road where, according to data from the Ministry of Transport, one in three users are trucks.
In the ditch, with the earth removed, remains of the headlights can still be seen,
the tank cap or gas station tickets.
Next to the pitch, a three-minute walk away, there is also a dead stone marten, as it is very common in these areas for wildlife to cross the road and cause mishaps.
At the bottom of the pine forest three roe deer can be seen.
Remains of an accident on the N-122 a few kilometers from Peñafiel, Valladolid.
La Maña de Traspinedo restaurant, just 500 meters from that point, has seen it all.
Dozens of travelers and carriers park there every day to eat a hearty menu of the day.
One of the waiters snorts when asked what the clientele is saying: "They are bitter, as long as they don't do the A-11...".
"But it's money, so we already know what happens," continues the employee, who curses the delay: the Junta de Castilla y León said 30 years ago that it was a "priority" to improve the N-122, but the central governments of PP and PSOE have hardly brought any progress.
Only 40% of the layout has been converted into a dual carriageway;
there is no date for the rest.
A few months ago a section was opened in Soria that avoids crossing the port of El Temeroso, where a truck driver died in March.
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The situation exasperates Alicia del Pozo, from Peñafiel, a member of the A11 Pasos platform, who is demanding the long-awaited highway to avoid the intense traffic that runs through the town.
The 50-year-old woman maintains, next to the abandoned roadside restaurant El Empecinado, the scene of a recent scare with two injured at the end of November, that "it is a national problem, a crossroad with many people who use it."
The N-122 passes through Zamora, Valladolid, Burgos and Soria.
Soria and Zamora are among the Spanish provinces with the highest mortality in traffic accidents per million inhabitants: 131 in the first case and 102 in the second, compared to a national average of 36 deaths per million inhabitants, according to data from the DGT in the period 2016-2020.
Alicia del Pozo, representative of the platform "A11 pasos" from Peñafiel. Emilio Fraile
“This infrastructure does not make sense until it is completed,” says the woman next to the Duero River, which runs from Soria to Portugal almost parallel to the asphalt.
"We have spoken with the Board and they come to tell us that it does not give electoral revenue, that it gives fewer votes than other things," sighs the woman from Valladolid.
The contrast between countries stands out: the Portuguese part, which goes up from Porto to Bragança, has been readapted to a highway, but when it reaches Spain it becomes the winding national road.
Del Pozo recalls that just two weeks ago a young man from Peñafiel spent several days in an induced coma after hitting his car with a truck.
At least he will be able to tell.
The remains of the accident are still perceived in the ditch.
A row of 13 cones delimits and signals, to say something in the darkness of the afternoon, the load carried by the heavy vehicle: hundreds of cardboard boxes and paper bags accumulated in a bad way.
There has not yet been time or means to remove them, something that does not worry too much for a driver who makes a risky overtaking just a few meters away.
Winter increases the risk due to poor visibility derived from rain or dense fog.
Standing at any point of the n-122 allows you to observe scenes that do not end in an accident almost miraculously.
There are sections that see six trucks pass by in half a minute;
in another, a heavy vehicle leaves a town and runs completely across the asphalt, cutting both directions.
A hasty high-end car avoids adding to the disastrous statistics for seconds, by overtaking a female driver like hell and, by swerving, avoiding the car that is coming in front.
She hadn't been given more time than to hold on to her own steering wheel and, perhaps, pray.
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