The youngest identified participant in the group of youths riding electric scooters and motorcycles that passed through central Sofia on Saturday evening was 13 years old. The child was riding an electric moped, Inspector Ivo Bikov of the Traffic Police at the Sofia Directorate of the Interior said.
Dozens of youths were riding along Vitosha Boulevard near the National Palace of Culture and along Bulgaria Boulevard. Footage of their passage, during which traffic jams and dangerous situations were created, was published on social media.
Sofia police to penalize drivers and parents
“We rely on the parents, but we are not seeing any help from them. What we see from them is an utter lack of control,” Bikov said.
He urged parents who provide such vehicles to their children to familiarize them with the basic rules of the road. According to him, both the identified children and their parents will be penalized, since some of the drivers are minors.
One adult driver was stopped on the spot, identified and fined for not wearing a safety helmet and for riding during the hours of darkness. Bikov pointed out that using such a vehicle at night is prohibited.
Some of the offenders were identified through video surveillance
The Sofia Directorate of the Interior said it had information about how the group had been organized and rejected accusations of an insufficient or slow police response.
“The group in question immediately dispersed in different directions. Some drivers even entered streets with oncoming traffic. In such cases, action is taken extremely carefully and precisely in order to prevent incidents, which ultimately did not occur,” the inspector said.
Some of the offenders were identified later through the Sofia Directorate of the Interior’s video surveillance network and were summoned to appear at the Traffic Police department for administrative action to be taken. According to police, most of the participants were not wearing helmets and were not riding close to the right-hand side of the road.
26 accidents involving electric vehicles
“They create extremely favorable conditions for traffic accidents to occur,” Bikov said of the violations identified among the group.
Since August 1, teams of the Sofia Directorate of the Interior monitoring traffic in Sofia have identified and sanctioned 3,661 drivers of individual electric vehicles. During the same period, 26 road traffic accidents involving them were registered, with people injured in eight of the cases.
Among the sanctioned drivers were 39 minors. The inspector did not provide details about the upcoming penalties in the individual cases.
Sources: dnes.dir.bg