Bulgaria is in first place in Europe in terms of road deaths with 82 deaths last year. For comparison - Sweden is among the countries with the lowest number of road victims in a year - 21. This was said by the chairman of the Union of Bulgarian Motorists (SBA) Emil Panchev during the forum "Dangerous behavior of drivers and road safety". Panchev cites data from a study by the SBA.
Since the beginning of this year, there have been 5,161 traffic accidents after violations by drivers, said Commissioner Maria Boteva from the “Traffic Police“ department. of the Ministry of the Interior. According to her, this is about 95% of the total number of accidents for the current year. Only in about 5% of the total number of road accidents were drivers found to have consumed alcohol or drugs. For this year, there were 3,962 cases of drivers sitting behind the wheel after using alcohol above 1.2 per million in the blood.
„A large number of these drivers become a potential danger, but society is increasingly sensitive to this. The efforts of the state authorities little by little are yielding results – the organized inspections and the fact that the roads are saturated with as many police teams as possible to control and help organize the traffic create a sense of security on the road, Boteva said.
SBA data show that the most common cause of a traffic accident is risky driving behavior - speeding, use of alcohol or drugs, or distraction. The most common risk is using a mobile phone. At the discussion, it was noted that many drivers do not recognize and realize the risks on the road.
„Road safety starts with the family – this is a shared responsibility between the participants in the movement and the institutions," said Panchev.