Government Unveils Plan to Reduce Serious Road Traffic Accidents

Minister of Transport and Communications, Georgi Peev, and Minister of Interior, Ivan Demerdzhiev, presented the Action Plan for reducing the risk of serious road traffic accidents and improving road safety, adopted by the Council of Ministers.

The plan brings together the institutional and technological framework for implementing the measures and the necessary changes to the regulatory framework. Its main aim is to move towards proactive road safety management based on risk analysis, automated data exchange between institutions, a clear allocation of responsibilities and monitoring of results.

Georgi Peev, Minister of Transport: “Today, the Council of Ministers adopted a decision regarding improvements to the road safety plan. The plan is revolutionary and involves clearly defined responsibilities. The problem until now has been blurred lines of responsibility among many institutions, unnecessary data distribution, overlapping responsibilities, and ineffective risk management, combined with poor infrastructure, which leads to road traffic accidents.”

The plan includes more than 31 measures, ranging from education to vehicle inspection centres, the transport minister said.

Georgi Peev, Minister of Transport: “It must be made absolutely clear who is responsible for safety in Bulgaria. The State Agency for Road Safety had an organisational role. It carried out largely non-binding analyses based on data provided by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Transport – measures were introduced without mechanisms for monitoring. The agency is becoming the body that will manage and analyse risk and will be able to direct the necessary resources.”

Photos: BTA

Minister of the Interior Ivan Demerdzhiev noted that road traffic injuries were identified as a priority right from the start of his term in office. A working group was set up and worked intensively to develop the concept.

“What we are doing at the moment is consolidating enforcement within the Interior Ministry and allocating enough teams to stop vehicles and carry out comprehensive checks. In other words, the Interior Ministry will carry out comprehensive, overall enforcement,” Demerdzhiev said.

He expressed hope that this would improve the quality of enforcement. He also explained that, as a second measure, the state would now make full use of toll cameras.

Ivan Demerdzhiev, Minister of the Interior: “Currently, all data from these cameras is displayed on the police officers’ tablets, so it is clear when there is a driver with a high-risk profile. That driver will be identified as early as the first cameras. The information will be sent to the traffic officer’s tablet. The officer will then pull over that vehicle. Drivers who make improper manoeuvres or drive aggressively will be identified, and in this way we believe we will be able to respond preventively in such cases rather than simply react to events.”

Demerdzhiev said work was also under way in two other areas. He expressed optimism that, by concentrating enforcement within the Interior Ministry and making full use of the systems already available, the effectiveness of road safety enforcement would increase significantly.