Serious violations in the construction of the safety guardrails on Bulgarian roads have been identified by the inspections of the Ministry of Interior. Important structural elements are missing, inappropriate fastening systems have been used, and in many places the protective facilities have not been built in a way that guarantees the safety of drivers. This was stated by the Minister of Interior Ivan Demerdzhiev at a round table on road safety, organized by the parliamentary group of “Democratic Bulgaria“.
According to him, the inspections of the General Directorate of Road Safety have shown that the system for building guardrails in Bulgaria is not being implemented in its full form, and in practice, the elements that should reduce the severity of the impact in the event of an accident are missing. “We have no explanation why the guardrail itself has two bolt holes, and the stakes to which it is attached have only one. This raises serious questions about the way these facilities were implemented“, said Demerdzhiev.
The minister also pointed out that the bolts used must be specialized, individually marked and certified in order to withstand a strong impact. However, according to him, these requirements are not always met.
The most serious problem, according to him, is the lack of the so-called balancing element - a structure that absorbs part of the kinetic energy in a collision and limits the consequences for the car and passengers. “These elements are not installed at all in most of our guardrails. Instead, the safety fence is attached directly to the posts, which changes the way it reacts when hit," the interior minister explained.
Demerdzhiev stressed that the solution is not a mechanical replacement of the metal guardrails with concrete dividers. "I am not calling for a hasty transition to concrete guardrails. There are other risks there too. It is more important that the protective facilities are implemented correctly so that the mistakes made so far are not repeated," he said.
According to him, the problems are not limited to the guardrails. In many places, the road surface has insufficient traction, and the risky sections are already being analyzed jointly by the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Regional Development, the Ministry of Transport and the Road Infrastructure Agency.
The minister announced that legislative changes are being prepared, including restricting the movement of heavy goods vehicles in the left lane of highways, more effective use of toll cameras to detect dangerous behavior on the road and expanding control with unmarked police cars.
Demerdzhiev added that joint inspections with the Ministry of Transport also found a seriously deteriorated technical condition of some of the trucks, especially in terms of tires. According to him, after the actions, tire replacement services were engaged for weeks to come, which shows the scale of the problem.