What we have been trying to draw the attention of the institutions to since the establishment of the State Road Safety Agency is that the road must be planned, designed, built and maintained in a way that integrates traffic safety. Political will is extremely important. Because regardless of whether the State Road Safety Agency exists or not, if there is no political will to unite the various departments, no real improvement will be achieved," he said in "From the Day" Malina Krumova - Chairperson of the State Road Safety Agency.
"We have identified the road as a road with a high accident rate. This is based on the Ministry of Interior's statistics on traffic accidents compared to other similar roads. Our report is from the middle of last year. If they had paid attention to it, most likely the tragic incident would not have happened". This is how Krumova commented on the fatal accident and the route where 12-year-old Siyana died.
"The roads suffer from a constant shortage of funds. And this is already a matter of organization, which we still have to work on".
The result of the initiated meeting with Prime Minister Zhelyazkov is that 36 measures have been identified, which do not only cover the impact on the road infrastructure, but also cover all factors that influence the occurrence of traffic accidents and their consequences. These measures have been in the works for some time, but were publicly announced today. The main part of them are measures related to improving and eliminating identified deficiencies in the road infrastructure.
The measures will be short-term and long-term, she explained. As short-term, she indicated: changing markings, placing signs, securing. Priority will be given to work on risky sections. Active work will also be done on citizen signals.
"This should be included as a database that determines our decisions regarding where to invest. After all, state resources for maintaining the road infrastructure are limited.".
Control will be improved - introducing an average speed, namely the use of speed cameras.
Malina Krumova was categorical that today's meeting showed something that has been missing in recent years. Since the establishment of the Road Safety Agency in 2019 after the incident in Svoge, institutions have started to think about road safety.
"The question is now that we need to take action".
Each of us is responsible for killing speeding, Krumova said.
"We drive the car. It does not drive itself. We will not kill speeding with cameras alone. Yes, cameras are an effective way of control. But another effective way of controlling speeding is the so-called. simultaneous detection and punishment for the violation".