At the end of last week on the main road Sozopol - Chernomorets a car driven by a young man crashed into a tree. The driver and two of his 17-year-old friends died on the spot. Another serious accident once again raises the issue of road safety, which we talk about so much, but always post facto. Krasimir Pargov, a former employee of the Executive Agency “Automobile Administration“, member of the Association “Automotive Experts in Road Safety“, commented on the topic to FACTI.
- Mr. Pargov, an urgent inspection has begun after the accident with three dead young people near Burgas. The Minister of Transport and Communications Grozdan Karadjov ordered a full inspection of the training and exam of the 18-year-old driver who caused the accident the day after he got his driver's license. And when this is checked, what... Will the lives of the young people return? What documents will be checked?
- These checks, which are now carried out by the Agency for the "Automobile Administration" (IAAA), should have been carried out automatically by the introduced digitalization. Criteria should be determined, according to the training documentation and without the intervention of a human factor, to determine whether a student is ready to be admitted to the exam or not. Now what if we find various violations in the training, 3 children are missing.
- Information has already come out that the training ended before July 12 - before the introduction of digitalization, and the hours cannot be tracked electronically. So we will only rely on the paper card… Let's translate it into understandable language. What information is in this paper card…
- The old paper documents were removed back in December 2024, but the training centers were given the opportunity to teach until July 2025 both on paper and in a digital environment. Another interesting thing is that the current management of the IAAA has given the training centers in this digital environment the opportunity to manually enter the necessary information. And so the manipulations moved from paper to the digital environment.
- There was also a discrepancy in the hours for night driving, because the lesson was held around 5:00 p.m. in June, when it was still light. This will bring a fine for the school and what of it …
- This with the fines is a very misunderstood methodology for working in the IAAA and what of them fining the training center after 3 children died. IAAA was created above all to create a real competitive environment for business, on the one hand, and on the other hand, this will have a real impact on road safety. It is for this reason that we insisted on the introduction of digitalization, because with it the human factor and, accordingly, corruption will have the least possible impact, because the criteria will be the same for all schools.
- Also, stricter control will be exercised over driving schools for three days, as is customary in Bulgaria, and then…
- In order to carry out quality training, control must be in a digital environment without the possibility of human intervention. The other thing that needs to be done is to break the connection between the instructor and the examiner, because that is where the money from corruption goes. The student must complete the course and, on a random basis, take an exam before the state.
- And one more thing. Why don't schools teach young drivers to "drive" at 160-200 kilometers per hour. Isn't this also a gap in training...
- I understand the irony in the question, but 160-200 kilometers per hour is too high a speed, which is first of all prohibited on roads open to public use. Such speeds are developed on a track by competitors. But one could consider introducing centers for improving qualifications in a controlled environment, where there would be mandatory elements of training such as driving on low-grip surfaces in rain, snow, etc.
- We are now seeing the result of the incident near Burgas, we remember Victor with the “flying” car in Sofia, which got stuck in a train. He clearly needs humility, don't you think …
- Above all, they must comply with the rules and order in schools, as set out by law. For years, since the old educational documentation, the educational centers have not issued the mandatory textbook. And why this happened, we can only guess. In the period between 2010 and 2011, the same leadership of the IAAA, who are now in the team of Minister Grozdan Karadjov, was in charge. Perhaps it is appropriate to ask them what is the reason for not issuing the textbook in question until the introduction of digitalization. The entire industry knows that it has been canceled, but how a mandatory document is canceled with an oral order, perhaps they should explain. And this is the document that is actually issued to the student to monitor whether the instructor will pass on to him all the modules and hours set out in the educational documentation. When the digitalization in question is introduced without the possibility of manual entry, when the exams are taken according to commands from the Navigator and the human factor is limited, then we will receive quality training. But training is a small part of the activities of the IAAA, where serious reform must be carried out in all sectors that it regulates and controls in a conflict of interest.