Speeding is number one cause of road accidents in Bulgaria – Traffic Police chief
Speeding is the leading cause of road accidents in Bulgaria, accounting for 1300 out of 5052 so far this year, Traffic Police chief Rossen Ralchev told local media.
The second-highest cause of accidents was sudden changes of movement, for example reckless overtaking, followed by trying to cut off other motorists in traffic.
Ralchev said that so far in 2018, there had been 5052 road accidents in Bulgaria, leaving 455 people dead and 6458 injured.
In cases where speeding was the cause, the death toll was 143 and the number of injured 1701.
The deaths were 21 fewer than at the same time in 2017, and Ralchev said that he expected the rate would drop more significantly, given the higher rate of enforcement on the roads.
He said that of those who had died in road accidents so far in 2018, 241 were drivers, 129 were passengers and 85 were pedestrians.
Traffic police had caught 8867 motorists driving while drunk, of whom 4440 had a blood-alcohol level higher than 1.2 promilles. They all had been handed over for prosecution, Ralchev said.
A total of 1008 motorists had been caught driving while under the influence of illegal narcotics.
More than 11 000 people had been caught driving without a licence. As Bulgarian law now allows in cases where the driver has no licence, the licence plates had been confiscated.
Ralchev said that Bulgaria’s Traffic Police would carry out two further major enforcement operations in 2018, one against drink-driving and driving under the influence of drugs, and the other to enforce the wearing of seatbelts.
(Photo: Jason Conlon)
