What is the DGT and what is its relationship to workplace safety?
The DGT is an autonomous body within the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, responsible for traffic, motor vehicle circulation, and road safety. It has no jurisdiction over labor matters or occupational risk prevention: these responsibilities fall to the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, the INSST (National Institute for Safety and Health at Work) as a scientific and technical body, and the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate as the supervisory body.
The DGT’s relationship with occupational safety and health is therefore one of inter-institutional collaboration in a shared area: work-related travel, which is both a traffic phenomenon and a source of occupational risk. This fact sheet focuses exclusively on this aspect of the DGT’s activity, not on its general traffic responsibilities.
The work-related traffic accident and its legal classification
The INSST distinguishes two situations within the work traffic accident: the in itinere accident, which occurs on the journeys to or from between the usual home and the workplace, and the accident on mission or during the workday, which occurs for work reasons while the person drives, is a passenger or acts as a pedestrian in the environment of their work activity.
The legal classification of commuting accidents and accidents while on assignment as work-related accidents stems from Social Security regulations, specifically Article 156 of the consolidated text of the General Social Security Law, and from the social jurisdiction that interprets its requirements, not from traffic regulations managed by the DGT (Spanish Directorate General of Traffic). The DGT does not classify work-related accidents; it provides data, analyses, and road accident prevention programs related to work-related travel.
Collaboration with the INSST and safe mobility programs
The DGT and the INSST jointly developed the Standard Plan for Safe and Sustainable Mobility in the Workplace, published in 2022, which includes actions to improve road safety from the different factors that affect travel for work purposes: human factor, vehicle factor, road and environment factor, and work organization factor.
Together with regional governments, the DGT (Spanish Directorate General of Traffic) promotes the Safe Mobility in the Workplace Seal, a regional recognition program for organizations that demonstrate a commitment to safe mobility for work-related commutes. According to information from the DGT, several regional governments have already implemented it independently.
The DGT also publishes material aimed at integrating occupational road safety into the corporate social responsibility of companies and into the criteria of public tenders, as a way to extend good practices of safe mobility beyond the strict legal obligation.
Data on work-related road accidents
According to DGT (Spanish Directorate General of Traffic) data consulted on September 3, 2026, approximately 72% of work-related road accidents are commuting accidents, while the remainder occur during working hours or on assignment. This figure is approximate and comes from the DGT itself; it has not been verified with an additional independent official statistical source.
These data place the usual journey between home and the workplace as the moment of greatest exposure to work-related road risks, above the journeys made during the day for work-related reasons.
Relationship with the ORP International Foundation
The case of the DGT illustrates that the institutional advisory committee of the International ORP Foundation is not limited to bodies with competence in occupational risk prevention: the Directorate General of Traffic is a road safety body, without its own labor competences, whose presence responds to the link between road safety and travel for work purposes, an area in which it collaborates with the INSST and the Labor Inspectorate.
Practical application
For a company, the DGT’s activity in this area offers a concrete starting point: the standard Safe and Sustainable Mobility Plan for the company allows for the structuring of an internal mobility policy that addresses vehicle, road, human factor and work organization, and the Safe Mobility Seal, where offered by the corresponding autonomous community, allows for the accreditation of this effort.
For a prevention technician, distinguishing the role of the DGT (Spanish Directorate General of Traffic) from that of Social Security and the social jurisdiction avoids frequent errors: the DGT provides data and road safety programs, but does not determine whether a specific accident qualifies as a work accident, a decision that corresponds to a different regulatory framework.
