36 deaths on Spanish roads over Easter break

Spanish General Direction of Traffic confirmed on Monday that a total of 36 people died in accidents on Spanish roads over the Easter holidays.

The Easter break officially began at 3 p.m. on March 18 and although the holidays have ended in many parts of Spain, Monday is still a holiday in regions such as Catalonia, the Basque Region, La Rioja, Navarra, Valencia and the Balearic Islands and the death toll could still rise over the coming hours.

So far 11 more people have died in road accidents than in 2015 as Spaniards made an estimated total of 8.7 million road trips over the 10-day period.

Easter sees the most intensive road traffic in the year given the limited timescale for people to make journeys, compared with the summer holiday period which lasts from the start of July until the end of August.

The most serious accident happened in the early hours of Sunday, March 20, when 13 foreign students died in a coach crash close to the city of Tarragona as they made their way back from the "Fallas" fiesta in Valencia.

Investigations into the cause of the crash all point to driver error, while it has also been reported that none of those who died in the coach were wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident.