Road sign P-19: Slippery road surface

What it means

«Peligro por la proximidad de una zona de la calzada cuyo pavimento puede resultar deslizante.» RD 465/2025, Annex I of the RGC (BOE-A-2025-12199), Spanish original.

The sign warns of an area of carriageway where the surface may be slippery. It speaks of grip: what matters is that you may lose traction, whether from ice, rain, oil or mud.

Where you meet it

It appears before the stretch with a risk of losing grip. Sign P-34, with a panel, names ice and snow: it warns of the same thing, lack of grip, but states the cause, which also comes and goes with the time of day.

What you must do

Moderate your speed: driving on a slippery surface is one of the cases that require it (RGC art. 46.1.g). With badly worn tyres and a wet road the risk grows, because the main grooves exist to clear water and with less tread they do it worse (RGC art. 45).

Details that count

The drawing is a skidding vehicle and obliges you to moderate, not to stop or to prohibit anything (official catalogue, P-19). Another sign exists, P-34, «Presence of ice or snow», which warns of a stretch where, in the winter season, ice or snow is frequently present together with the dangers that go with it.

What it is confused with

It is confused with P-15, «Uneven road surface», and with P-28, «Loose chippings»: three signs speak of the road surface, each about a different property. P-19 is about grip, P-15 about the shape of the surface, and P-28 about what the surface throws up as vehicles pass.

Related signs

• P-15: Uneven road surface
• P-28: Loose chippings
• P-26: Falling rocks

Studied in topic 36: Tunnels, fog and snow.

Source: RGC arts. 45, 46.1.g; RGC Annex I, sign P-19 (RD 465/2025).