The topic of road safety affects everyone every day, but we cannot deal with it individually. We are devoting a significant resource and our efforts are paying off, but we need to come together for even greater efficiency.
This was said by the Minister of the Interior Atanas Ilkov at a meeting initiated by him with the mayors of large cities, regional governors, representatives of the management of the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria and the management of the State Agency “Automotive Administration“, Agency “ Road infrastructure“ and the State Agency “Road Traffic Safety”, announced the press center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The dead pedestrians remain a serious problem, according to the report of the traffic police. From the beginning of the year until now, 87 pedestrians have died, 59 of them died in populated areas.
The Minister of the Interior announced at the meeting with the mayors and regional governors that an analysis of pedestrian paths in the urban environment, markings, traffic lights and barrier facilities has been carried out. The activities in the Road Traffic Safety Fund, which provides funds for improving road conditions, have also been considered. It is planned to use it to buy signs, paint to refresh the pedestrian paths, solar lighting, balises, stakes and rubber artificial bumps.
In order to keep the trend of reducing traffic accidents and victims of road traffic accidents and for it to be permanent, we all need to interact, Malina Krumova, head of the State Agency “Road Traffic Safety”, emphasized. According to her, the idea of helping municipalities and providing them with funds is a step in the right direction.
The chairman of the management board of the Agency “Road Infrastructure” Yordan Valchev added that the institution supports the idea of reducing the maximum permissible speed of traffic on the highways and announced that they are working to introduce a single value of the maximum permitted speed in all tunnels on the highways, and not, as before, for each tunnel to be different.
The representatives of the mayoral and regional centers welcomed Minister Atanas Ilkov for the invitation and the joint initiative and defined it as a “step in the right direction”. Topics such as the possibility of building video surveillance in populated areas and giving more powers to municipal police units were also discussed.