Sacyr Concesiones
A few years ago, it was common to see the Spanish highways on the news, due to the recurrent “kamikaze drivers”, a term given to drivers who circulate in the opposite direction of traffic. That’s why when the opportunity showed up with the renovation of the systems in the Barbanza Highway under the shadow-toll agreement, we saw it as a huge opportunity to make a real impact.
Sacyr decided to create an innovative system that could alert other drivers of dangers, like kamikaze drivers, with enough time to avoid fatalities. In coordination with Concession Manager, Angel Delgado, and Ventura Martinez, one of the engineers, we implemented a new detection system of extremely dangerous vehicles. This new system used the same elements we already used for the construction of the highway, by amplifying their use to help keep drivers safe.
Among many other features, this solution includes real time detectors of kamikaze vehicles distributed throughout 22 different sections of the highway, real time notifications for the control center operators and an alarm with continuous playback on the control screen of a video recording of the kamikaze driver. But more importantly, through the system developed, we are able to alert other drivers of possible kamikazes coming their way, through notification panels along the highway as well as inform police of the situation in a timely manner.
At Sacyr, we know safety goes first but we also know that through innovation we can find new and better solutions to most of the problems we face everyday, and Barbanza Highway is just another great example of this.