Are we all to blame for the accidents that occur on Bulgarian roads, especially when there are victims. After each accident, we talk and … Eng. Yasen Ishev - Chairman of the Management Board of the Scientific and Technical Union for Transport - speaks to FAKTI.
- Mr. Ishev, once again we talk to you when there is a serious accident on the road. Respectively, the topic of road safety is raised again. Let's start like this. You were at the place where the accident with little Siyana occurred. What are your impressions of what you saw?
- I was at the scene of the accident for more than an hour and what impressed me most about the road was that it was patched, and between the individual machine patches there was a difference in elevation. There were also the beginnings of ruts, the shoulders were not in good condition after the accident. I assume they have already been repaired. But what impressed me most was that the speed limit signs of 70 km were already in place on the day I was there, but no one was following them. Drivers were driving at a higher speed. I would like to share, as a participant in traffic, that the signs on our roads are not being followed. In principle, it is a mass disease to not pay attention to the signs. People drive as they are used to and without paying attention to road signs.
- Developing a higher speed on this section is normal, right?
- If the truck driver was driving at over 90 km, if he pressed the brakes to slow down at the wrong time, on wet pavement, perhaps with bad tires, with not the best grip of the tractor on the trailer, to get this turn... Many questions. And, unfortunately, we have a tragic accident.
- What is the condition of the pavement itself?
- The pavement, in my opinion, because I felt the asphalt with my hand, was such that the old pavement was rougher than the new machine patching that was done. There was an inhomogeneity in the pavement. Look, dozens of trucks, thousands of cars pass there every day, the road is busy, but the worst happened on only one...
- About a month ago, Greek citizens also died there?
- The situation was different then, because the section was under repair, but it was not well secured. There was a car that stopped because of the repair, but there was no second signalman to stop the following cars. So the next truck hits the stopped car and the driver dies. The passenger car is not the cause of the accident on the road, but the cause is the poor signaling that the colleagues should have made.
- And now we see again how we will implement measures with which we will fight road safety. How do you view them…
- Some are good, some are a little more written. Look, all measures that will have control over their implementation will be good and will improve road safety.
- Which measures do you like and with what?
- There are many measures that have been proposed, and I do not intend to discuss them one by one. But I will give such an example. At the beginning of each year, programs for road repairs, road safety, provided with funds, should be set, and based on these programs, at the end of the year, a report should be given to the public, to us. Here is the program, here is what we have done. What was promised, what was provided, what was fulfilled. If there is no control, we do nothing. Now we hear from the minister that he is satisfied with the work of the RIA. The question is that if what was set as tasks for them, they do not complete it in the coming months, after the funds are provided, what will follow. Without money, nothing happens and we will just write and talk.
- Does the Bulgarian only understand drastic measures? We put stakes in the Kresna Gorge and, thank God, there have been no serious accidents there recently. Do we only understand such restrictions...
- The stakes work, but will it be like that everywhere? If there were stakes in this section where Siyana died - so what!? Wouldn't this TIR, this large platform sweep them away? It would. There is something else with this section. If the "Hemus" highway, which was supposed to be built to the junction for Pleven and Lovech, where heavy traffic was supposed to be redirected, there is almost no work there or only the first section is being worked on. This should have been ready a year ago. If it had been ready and the heavy traffic had been diverted, maybe the Siyana incident would not have happened. And this applies to all the highways that are being worked on. And the "Europe" highway, which was supposed to be ready after the road from Niš to Kalotina on the Serbian side was completed, should have already been ready, and our section - from Sofia to Kalotina. Now they promise us that it will be launched by June-July. You see, highways save human lives because they are the safest roads and there are very few accidents on them.
- And where is the discipline and quality of drivers in Bulgaria? When we drive abroad, we are very disciplined, but here we become…
- For me, the question is why is it so. 90% of traffic accidents are the fault of the drivers, not the fault of the road. Drivers are driving, they must take into account road conditions, speed, traffic congestion, etc. So we should look for the fault in the drivers the most. We should look for a change in their training, so that there is constant attention and control. Speed kills us! Many human lives can be saved if we are more careful, more responsible on the road.