GNR Steps Up Road Patrols Until Sunday for the All Saints' Weekend, After Four Deaths and 228 Drink-Driving Arrests in the 2024 Operation

The GNR (Guarda Nacional Republicana, the national guard that polices roads outside the main cities) has put extra patrols on the mainland's busiest roads from today, Friday 30 October, until Sunday 1 November, under its "Todos os Santos 2026" operation for the All Saints' weekend, Lusa reported via Notícias ao Minuto, citing a GNR statement.

All Saints' Day (Dia de Todos os Santos) is one of Portugal's compulsory public holidays under article 234 of the Labour Code, and it is traditionally the day families travel to visit their relatives' graves. This year 1 November falls on a Sunday, so there is no extra weekday off, but the GNR still expects heavy traffic across the three days.

What the GNR says it will do

The operation combines general policing, crime prevention, patrols and road checks, with the stated aims of cutting accidents, keeping traffic moving and helping road users. The GNR has not published hours or a list of specific roads: it says only that it will concentrate on the routes with the most traffic on the mainland. Last year's equivalent operation, which ran from 31 October to 2 November, used officers from the territorial commands and the Unidade Nacional de Trânsito (the national traffic unit), according to the GNR's 2025 statement.

The force is asking drivers to:

• take particular care when overtaking, turning, making U-turns and giving way, and keep a safe distance;
• wear a seatbelt and use proper child restraints;
• match their speed to the road and the conditions;
• leave the phone alone while driving;
• drink no alcohol and take no psychotropic substances before or while driving.

What earlier operations found

The GNR has not put a final tally for the 2025 operation on its press page. Its weekly bulletin for 31 October to 6 November 2025, which covers the whole week rather than the holiday operation alone, recorded 240 arrests for drink-driving, 144 for driving without a licence and 9,015 traffic offences, including 1,580 for speeding, 414 for alcohol over the legal limit, 234 for phone use and 208 for seatbelt or child-seat failures.

For the 2024 operation, which ran over five days from 31 October to 4 November, the GNR counted 1,138 road accidents, with four people killed, 18 seriously injured and 285 slightly injured, Lusa reported via Observador. Officers checked 30,497 drivers and found 5,838 offences, 1,689 of them for speeding. They detained 353 people, 228 of them for driving at or above the criminal alcohol level of 1.2 grams per litre of blood.

What it means for you this weekend

If you are driving to a cemetery or to family this weekend, expect police checks on the main routes and plan for slower traffic near cemeteries. Alcohol is the obvious risk at family lunches: the general legal limit is 0.5 grams per litre, and at that level the risk of a serious or fatal crash doubles, the road safety authority ANSR, the GNR and the PSP said in their "Taxa Zero ao Volante" campaign last November. The safest choice is not to drink at all if you are driving. The fines, licence points and bans for speeding are set out in our earlier explainer.

The operation comes a day after ANSR figures showed road deaths rising 15 percent in the first quarter of 2026. The Brief found no parallel holiday operation announced by the PSP, which polices the cities.