The government will consider a report with 37 comprehensive measures to improve road safety.
This was announced by the Prime Minister and ministers on April 8 after a meeting focused on the fight against the "war on the roads". The meeting was initiated by Prime Minister, Rosen Zhelyazkov, following the tragic accident in which 12-year-old Siyana lost her life.
Minister of Regional Development, Ivan Ivanov, announced that he and the Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) have committed to opening a new section of the "Hemus" motorway by the end of June, as well as the road segment between Botegvgrad and Mezdra. This will ease traffic for heavy-goods vehicles.
"The important thing is that work is being done, the bad thing is that we are filling gaps and making up for lost time. If the construction of 'Hemus' and the Botegvgrad-Mezdra road hadn’t been delayed and literally stopped, traffic wouldn't have been redirected from there (the section where the 12 year-old Siyana died after a crash)," said Ivan Ivanov.
Transport Minister Grozdan Karadzhov said the aim of the 37 measures was to achieve a 20% reduction in road deaths. Some of the measures include:
- simultaneous detection, punishment and handing over of penalty notices to offenders. This will avoid searching and hiding of offenders.
- increasing controls on the transportation of children and pupils. To this end, technical aids will be introduced to prevent the engine from starting if the driver has consumed alcohol or drugs. Grozdan Karadzhov explained that these devices will perform a facial recognition test and an alcohol and drug test on the driver.
- use of automated monitoring and measurement systems of municipalities, state institutions possible on the basis of their data to issue and deliver penalties based on available data.
"When personal identification becomes possible electronically with new ID cards, penalty notoces will also be delivered electronically," said Grozdan Karadzhov.
The measures also include:
- Establishment of a body to investigate serious car accidents.
- A clearer allocation of funds from the Road Safety Fund. The money will go to both municipalities and central administration, but will be directed solely to improving road safety.
Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov announced that the systems of the National Revenue Agency, "Customs", "Border Police", the toll administration and the RIA will be linked so that the institutions can share information with each other.
"The government will not take responsibility for the actions or inactions of previous governments. We will take clear political responsibility for the actions we will present to the public," he stated.
A list of problematic road sections that require repairs will be released to the public.
"Our desire is for there to be civic control over their implementation. They will be supported by the state budget. We will involve responsible individuals, set deadlines, and allocate resources for monitoring public expenditure. We will use the contracts for the maintenance of road infrastructure that have seen little action since 2022. But we will specify deadlines, projects, and will not spare resources for this," said Rosen Zhelyazkov.
"Colleagues representing the memebrs of the public will be engaged according to their expertise to monitor the implementation and point out both the advantages and disadvantages in the execution of planned measures. This will be a significant but important investment in ensuring road safety."
By mid-year, speed control based on the video surveillance of the toll system will be introduced, the Prime Minister added.
The meeting was attended by Minister of Justice Georgi Georgiev, Minister of Interior Daniel Mitov, Minister of Finance Temenuzhka Petkova, Ivan Ivanov, Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Chairman of the Board of the Road Infrastructure Agency Yordan Vylchev, Malina Krumova, Chairperson of the State Agency for Road Safety, as well as relatives of those who died in road traffic accidents.
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