Some 17 drunk drivers were registered only over a single weekend in Sofia, as breathalyzers marked 1.5 permille of blood alcohol content /BAC/ which pointed at no less than 500 g of concentrate. The other violation is speeding of over 100 km/h at a limitation of 50. Sad statistics shows in the end of the year that over 700 died in road accidents and more than 9,000 were injured with a record-high number of children killed – exceeding the number of 30 till now. That was why MPs took severe measures against reckless drivers through the last week before their Christmas holiday. Those nabbed with 0.8 – 0.5 permille of BAC will lose their driving licenses for a period of up to 6 months with a fine of up to EUR 250. The ones with higher levels of BAC will face higher sanctions and the respective vehicle shall not be used in the course of a whole year, as the registration plate shall be removed. The new fines will enter into force as of New Year. Chair of the Bulgarian Association of Road Accident Victims Vladimir Todorov says the measure will have its deepest impact on drunk drivers. In his words the sanctions will have their effect, but the range of the violations seized should be expanded. “This country is ranked first in the number of road accidents’ deaths. Pedestrians are around 30% of the victims in this ‘road war’. More from Vladimir Todorov:

‘There are two main reasons for this situation: on one hand it is the intolerant attitude of drivers. Bulgarian cars still tend not to stop at pedestrian crosswalks with exception of 3 – 4 cities, where the latter have been built up higher from the ground. The rest of the country still sees intolerant attitude of drivers. On the other hand pedestrians themselves show no discipline and cross the road at extremely dangerous spots. There is an issue with elderly people over this period of the year with the shorter days. In smaller settlements they move along the road and their clothes are dark. Thus they create prerequisites for traffic accidents themselves. The Road Traffic Act needs to see clearance of this controversy, saying now that pedestrians should judge the speed of the car coming ahead on one hand, but on the other vehicles must stop once a man has stepped on the crosswalk. Our organization insists on the changing of the law asap.’

November was a black month in relation to traffic accidents’ victims, which exceeded quite more in number last year’s digits. That was stated by Commissioner Boyko Ranovski, head of Traffic Police:

‘Drivers appeared to be unprepared for the summer-to-winter change in traffic conditions and the dangers existing remained underestimated – those are fogs, snow and wet roads. Several of the heavy traffic collisions were due to such mistakes of the drivers. Basically road safety training should start as of the early childhood – while teaching their kids to walk, parents should tell them what is safe on the road. Nobody does that, however. The initial example of the parents is the strongest and remains for good. Furthermore, there are cases when everything is taught at school or the kindergarten, but kids tend to forget it, once they face their parents’ bad example’.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev