ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF INTERIOR OF THE REPUBLIC OF
BULGARIA PROF. GEORGI PETKANOV
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear representatives of the mass media,
It is incredibly pleasant for me that I’m here today at this forum where are
gathered road safety experts, scientists, representatives of public institutions,
non-governmental organizations, the media, the insurance branch, the private
sector. Together we will lead discussions on how to find new approaches for
decreasing the number of road accident victims.
Among all systems people daily encounter the road traffic turns out to be
an exceptionally complex and life and health threatening system. Every day on
the road people get killed or injured. Different people become road accident
victims: children, men, women, going by foot, by bicycle, by car etc., heading
for work, school, shopping, a trip. These people will never come back leaving
relatives and friends in deep grief. Every year thousands of people find
themselves in a hospital after a severe road accident and many of them will not
be able to live, work or entertain themselves the same way as before the
accident. A lot of families fall into deep misery after the only working member
of the family has perished in an accident or because the injured or crippled
relatives need extra care.
In order to decrease the number of road accidents, a series of measures
were taken. The Road Traffic Act suffered amendments generally aimed at
making the commitments of the individual ministries more concrete and
improving the coordination between the ministries, raising the sanctions for the
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severe violations, etc. The enforcement towards the novice drivers, the severe
and systematic violators of the road regulations was improved. The Council of
Ministers adopted a National Programme for Improvement of Road Safety in the
Republic of Bulgaria, 2004-2006. National campaigns, seminars, competitions
were carried out; they produced positive effect on the condition of the road
safety.
Without underestimating the already achieved decrease in the number of
road accident victims during the last three years by over 16% compared with the
average values for 1990-2001, we ought to clearly state that the greater part of
the severe road accidents can be prevented and their implications - limited. The
level of road safety is a mirror image of the knowledge and skills, the culture,
the discipline and the behaviour of the road users, of the technical condition, the
active and passive safety of the vehicles, the road conditions, and the state of the
traffic organization, regulation and management, the organization of the postaccident activities, the level of paramedical and medical aid, the level of
technical equippedness of the enforcement system, and last but not least, the
funding of the road safety activities. The problems in the aforementioned fields
are well-known and their solution cannot happen immediately, on the contrary it requires a mobilization of the efforts of many institutions, non-governmental
organizations, as well as pushing the problem into the people’s everyday life and
constant actions for achieving the strategic aim of halving the road accident
victims by 2010.
In this context the complex problems such as the alternation of the road
users’ behaviour, achieving a higher traffic culture and discipline, decreasing the
number of the violations connected with the severe road accidents such as
speeding, drunk driving and driving by unlicensed people, non-use of seatbelts
etc., are due to be solved. Particular attention should be paid to the improvement
of the work on education of children and creating conditions for their safe
participation in the road traffic as pedestrians, cyclists and passengers.
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Of utmost importance for the reduction of the number of road accident
victims is the activity aiming at permanent improvement of road conditions and
timely discovery and remedy of the black spots, improvement of the active and
passive road safety, relieving the traffic in built-up zones, residential zones and
around schools. Hence, actions should be undertaken to create better conditions
for pedestrian and bicycle traffic especially in built-up zones.
Special attention should be paid to the improvement of visibility between
the individual road traffic users, particularly at twilight and night, and to the
technical fitness of the motor vehicles.
The truth about the road accident implications and about the sudden
change in human destiny due to these accidents should be more and more
intensively presented to the public, possibilities for strengthening the public
control as well as self-control in the family and friendly circles should be
sought.
The organization and carrying out of widely promoted by the media
national campaigns, seminars, competitions is on of the ways for increasing the
knowledge and alternation of the road users’ behaviour. These campaigns,
enjoying an extensive participation of public institutions, non-governmental
organizations and media, during the last years provided much help for the sake
of traffic safety improvement.
I am convinced that this conference will play its positive role for the
exchange of knowledge and establishing of acquaintances, and will create an
opportunity for a better partnership and cooperation among its participants, and
will draft particular recommendations for how to improve the activities on
reduction of the road accident victims and especially of children.
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