The Public Security Police (PSP) of Porto recorded 244 hit-and-runs in the municipality in 2023, out of a total of 4,034 accidents in which they were called to intervene, according to data provided to the Lusa agency.
According to anofficial PSP source, last year in the municipality of Porto, of the 4,034 accidents to which the PSP was called (an average of 11.05 per day), 3,517 were collisions, 273 were crashes and 244 were run over.
The figures provided to Lusa only include accidents recorded by the PSP, and the real number is higher, as there are accidents that do not require the intervention of this security force.
The PSP’s data also indicates that, of the total number of accidents in which it was called to intervene, 309 happened on the Estrada da Circunvalação and 319 happened on Highway 20 (A20), which covers part of the route of the Via de Cintura Interna (VCI).
On the VCI as a whole (which also includes part of the A28), according to figures released to journalists by Porto City Council in March, which refer to “accidents reported by the PSP to ANSR [National Road Safety Authority]”, in 2023 there were 526 accidents, with two deaths, one serious injury and 159 minor injuries.
In 2022, on the VCI, the number of accidents was practically identical (524), but with no deaths or serious injuries, and the number of slight injuries was also lower (144).
The figures for the last two years are higher than those for 2021 and 2020: in 2021 there were 482 accidents that caused two deaths and 108 slight injuries, while in 2020 there were 417 accidents, with one death and one serious injury to regret, and there were 104 slight injuries.
Around 130,000 vehicles circulated per day on the sections of the VCI in Porto, almost 5,000 more than in 2022, according to data from the Traffic Report of the Institute of Mobility and Transport (IMT), and calculations by Lusa.
The figures represent an increase of around five thousand vehicles compared to 2022, the year in which the annual average daily traffic reached 125 thousand on the VCI in Porto.
Last year, traffic on the VCI in Porto practically matched the figures for 2019, the year before the covid-19 pandemic, when around 131,000 vehicles circulated per day.
The IMT report calculates the average daily traffic per month, making a weighted average, and Lusa calculated the average of these figures.
