Bogdan Milchev to FAKTI: State road safety institutions are brain dead

The Institute for Road Safety (IRT) has demanded the resignation of the director of the State Agency "Road Traffic Safety" Malina Krumova. The organization's reasons state that for six years now the agency has not been fulfilling its main function - to be a coordinating and leading body for road safety, and in cases like the accident with 12-year-old Siyana, it does not take responsibility, but transfers it to other institutions. What else is not happening when we talk about road safety… Bogdan Milchev from the Bulgarian National Police Agency speaks to FACTS.

- Mr. Milchev, we are changing laws, holding actions, but we are also seeing a flying car crash into a bus, and on “Botevgradsko shosse“ a car splits in two after a brutal impact. What are we actually doing?
- Look, the focus on road safety is wrong. The focus is directed solely as a punitive repression on drivers. Is there any effect… This repression allows for an impact on very few people. The focus should simply be directed at the management of state institutions, at state control. And the state road safety institutions are brain dead. I can comment on them one by one. And in the first place, of course, is the State Agency “Road Traffic Safety“ - it does absolutely nothing. And no one in this country knows why this Agency exists, why it is subordinate to the Prime Minister.

- But you were among the supporters of creating this Agency, and now…
- Yes, I am something of an ideologist and founder. The idea when creating it was to bear general responsibility for road safety in Bulgaria. When road safety is socially unacceptable, immediate changes must be made in this state agency.

- Is that why you requested the resignation of the Agency's director Malina Krumova from the IPB in an open letter to the Prime Minister…
- I will clarify that this resignation was requested more than two months ago. The letter was provided to Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov. And do you know what the Prime Minister did during this time…

- What…
- With the Chairperson of the Agency Malina Krumova, they called in one by one the people who had signed this request for resignation – both citizens and NGOs – in order to put pressure on them to withdraw their signatures.

- But now the request has been signed by quite a few non-governmental organizations…
- But there were more of them. There are those who gave up. The large initial signature is with me, so I can show it. It's just that instead of correcting the institutions and putting things right, they decide how to put pressure on government organizations by promising them influence. Because anyone who has access to the Prime Minister's phone, or someone else from the cabinet, is happy to be able to pay attention to them. Do you realize that currently road safety is managed by influencers, by “traders“ of road safety. By “traders“ I mean various NGOs, I mean lawyers, civil servants, who do what - trade the lives of Bulgarian citizens.

- How do “traders“ do this?
- I'll answer you right away, it's very simple. We see how much we brag right now that our roads are being built very well. We hear this from various non-governmental organizations. But is it being built qualitatively... Why aren't the tasks that the RIA issues for repairs on our roads public? Because that way we will see how much money is spent on what is being built. Did you know that currently the construction of our roads generates a profit of between 50 and 60% of the entire road construction budget. If someone says that's not true, let them refute me. Let them publish the quantitative accounts for the repairs carried out. Many people understand this matter. Then we will see whether there is a price increase or not a price increase for a certain activity. The lack of transparency - this is the main reason why the public does not trust. Because we are subjected to information manipulation, including by ministers. The most recent case is with the Minister of Internal Affairs Daniel Mitov, who showed such inadequate and gullible behavior even before the Ruse incident. Even before that, his behavior on the topic of road safety was inadequate. When the main, responsible figure for road safety is inadequate, this simply destroys the authority of everyone else in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Minister of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs should be the guardians of the security of citizens, and what is happening... In general, everything that is being done, including the changes to the Road Traffic Act, once again reveals the managerial weakness on the subject. Here is an example. Since the beginning of September 2025, we have had 20% more deaths than in September last year. The data is as follows. Last year, from the beginning of the month to September 17, we had 18 people killed, and for this year - despite the legal measures, despite the unprecedented media control, we have 22 dead. The situation for June and August is similar. We have no decrease in victims. The only decrease in victims was in June, after Prime Minister Zhelyazkov gave an ultimatum to the state institutions responsible for this on May 27 to take measures, otherwise he would remove them.

- And this deadline passed..
- Thus, the state institutions reduced the victims by 10 people for June, compared to June 2024, but the decrease was statistical, because then they removed an unprecedented number of people from the statistics according to their internal rules. After this was made public by us - by the Road Safety Institute, because we proved that the Ministry of Interior manipulates statistics, they began to slowly limit themselves. But they continue to do so. That is why we have no real idea how many people die in Bulgaria. If real statistics are made, they will turn out to be many times more, because the Ministry of Interior does not work transparently and does not provide real statistics. Why do the RIA refuse to publish repair assignments. Because we cannot exercise systematic control like this. Why does the Institute for Roads and Bridges refuse to provide certificates for asphalt recipes... When all this is done in the dark, there is no control. We see the Ministry of Interior controlling traffic - lazily. What does the traffic policeman do - hide the car behind a bush so that he can lie in the car and sleep. And the camera works instead of him. The Ministry of Interior has long started working digitally and does not need to go out on the road. Last year, we issued 1.5 million electronic tickets, filmed with cameras. If we could not influence the population to comply with the rules with 1.5 million tickets, we will not be able to do so with 10 million. This is what the Bulgarian Prime Minister does not understand, in order to pretend that there is no problem with road safety. He may be the only person in the country who thinks that things are as they should be.