Most dangerous motorways: Spanish roads where drivers face the greatest accident risk

Discover Spain’s most dangerous motorway stretches, the accident blackspots putting drivers at risk, and how the country compares with Europe’s highest road fatality rates.

Drivers who regularly use Spain’s motorways might assume that the busy A-7 along the Costa del Sol to be the worst of the country’s most dangerous roads. However, the latest accident figures reveal a rather different picture, with some of the highest-risk stretches found in Toledo, Madrid and Alicante.

A new assessment by motorists’ association Automovilistas Europeos Asociados (AEA), covering the five-year period from 2020 to 2024, has identified 100 particularly dangerous sections of motorway across Spain.

The findings are based on the average danger index, which takes account of accidents involving casualties and traffic levels. This means that a stretch with fewer accidents can still be considered particularly dangerous if relatively few vehicles use it.

Where are Spain’s most dangerous motorway sections?

The highest-ranked section is surprisingly not on the Mediterranean coast, but inland, in Castilla-La Mancha.

The kilometre 17 stretch of the AP-41 in Toledo recorded a danger index of 74.3, approximately 16 times the national motorway average of 4.4. The AEA’s latest assessment of Spain’s most dangerous motorway sections places the following roads at the top of its national ranking:

The Alicante section of the AP-7 recorded 14 accidents involving casualties and 21 victims during the five-year assessment period.

The Mediterranean coast has several accident blackspots

The AP-7, which runs along much of Spain’s Mediterranean coastline, features repeatedly in the assessment. Apart from Alicante and Almeria, several sections in Murcia also appear in the national ranking. These include kilometres markers 800, 810, 822, 854, 860 and 879.

Malaga Province is not absent either. Sections of the AP-7 at kilometres 172, 179 and 200 feature in the 100 most dangerous stretches, as does the AP-46 at kilometre 5.

For drivers travelling between the Costa del Sol, Murcia and Alicante, the findings are a reminder that accident risks are not restricted to the roads they use most frequently.

Other interesting EWN reads on this subject include nine dangerous motorway sections in Malaga Province, while the notorious A-7 congestion problems along the Costa del Sol were explored in a report on the motorway’s continuing problems.

Which roads record the most accidents?

There is an important distinction between a road’s danger index and the actual number of accidents. A separate AEA assessment of dangerous conventional roads and dual carriageways identified 295 kilometres of particularly dangerous roads across 45 provinces.

One of the most striking findings concerns Alicante’s A-77a, where the kilometre 0 section recorded 93 accidents and 141 victims between 2020 and 2024. This was the highest accident and casualty total in the assessment of conventional roads and dual carriageways.

Other notable sections included:

• T-11, Tarragona: 85 accidents and 103 victims at kilometre 15.
• T-11, Tarragona: 79 accidents and 113 victims at kilometre 17.
• A-55, Pontevedra: 57 accidents and 95 victims at kilometre 12.

The A-55 section near Mos is particularly relevant to drivers travelling through Galicia, while the A-77a figures are a reminder that Alicante’s road safety concerns extend beyond the AP-7.

Are motorways safer than other roads?

Generally, yes. AEA describes motorways as Spain’s safest category of road infrastructure, although its latest assessment shows that individual stretches can still carry considerably higher risks.

Across the 100 motorway sections identified in its 2020 to 2024 assessment, there were 502 accidents involving casualties and 846 victims, most of whom suffered minor injuries.

The wider picture is also worth considering. According to the DGT’s provisional 2025 road safety figures, 1,119 people died in accidents on Spain’s interurban roads last year.

Drivers should also remember that the A-7 and AP-7 are different roads. The former is a toll-free autovía, while the latter is an autopista. Their accident records should not be confused when comparing safety figures.

The findings do not mean drivers should avoid any of these routes, but they do challenge the assumption that the busiest or most notorious roads are automatically the most dangerous.

For British residents and rental car customers driving around Spain, the message is straightforward: familiar routes deserve just as much attention as unfamiliar ones, and even a relatively quiet stretch of motorway can carry a higher accident risk than expected.

Spain compares favourably with much of Europe

Despite the accident blackspots identified across the country, Spain can generally be considered a relatively safe place to drive compared with many other European nations. Its road fatality rate of 37 deaths per million inhabitants in 2024 was well below the EU’s highest figures, including Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. While drivers should never become complacent, the statistics suggest that Spain performs reasonably well in European road safety comparisons.

Highest road fatality rates in Europe, 2024 (EU countries):