In the coming months, the traffic police will monitor the behavior of pedestrians with increased attention. Stricter rules are now in force. They include a ban on using a phone when crossing a pedestrian crossing. In addition, pedestrians should signal when crossing a pedestrian crossing. This will be a prerequisite for collisions in the event of a possible road accident, believes Bogdan Milchev, director of the Road Safety Institute and former head of the Traffic Police. According to him, a major information campaign is needed, which is overdue.
"The state institutions, in the person of the Road Safety Agency, mostly missed a lot of valuable time for an explanatory campaign. This is a law that changes over 60 articles. We have 12 new definitions – new rules. This requires a serious debate on how these rules will be implemented. All this speaks of many changes, which will take a long time, perhaps years, to be understood by people. Even an explanatory campaign should be carried out among traffic police officers who must monitor the new rules.
These are good intentions that will be difficult to implement with the approach that the "Traffic Police" currently has to control traffic.
Bogdan Milchev also commented that one cannot rely only on self-awareness. The problem with pedestrians is extremely serious. Over the past year, 111 pedestrians died.
"The majority of them are elderly people who do not use a phone on the pedestrian crossing. There are problems that the state systematically refuses to deal with.".