Bulgarian government declares June 29 annual ‘Road Safety Day’
Bulgaria’s government has declared June 29 the annual Road Safety Day, the government information service said.
The day is intended to see events and educational campaigns to promote road safety. Future years will see discussions on results achieved, sharing of experiences among agencies involved with road safety and new decisions on promoting road safety, the statement said.
The decision comes against a background of the second consecutive year in which Bulgaria was shown to have the second-highest road fatality rate in the European Union. In the years before that, it ranked the highest.
On June 19, Bulgarian Traffic Police started a special operation throughout the country, against a background of a series of recent serious road accidents, to enhance control.
The Interior Ministry said that Traffic Police would be checking for speeding, unlicensed drivers, the use of safety belts and child seats.
According to Interior Ministry provisional statistics posted on June 19, between January 1 and June 18, there were 2636 road accidents in Bulgaria, leaving 220 people dead and 3292 injured. The number of road deaths by June 18 was eight fewer than by the same date in 2018, the ministry said.
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