Bulgaria’s Radev government’s pathetic ‘plan’ against road deaths
The Bulgarian government headed by former president, now Prime Minister, Roumen Radev announced on September 9 that it had approved an – obviously pathetic – plan against road deaths.
The plan involves bureaucratic reshuffling, with no obvious explanation how this would help.
According to Interior Ministry provisional statistics, posted on September 9, road deaths in Bulgaria are up by 25 compared with same time in 2025, before the Radev administration took office.
A statement by the government information service posted on the evening of September 9, several hours after Radev’s Cabinet met, “detailed” the “action” plan.
The Cabinet, the statement said, approved an “action plan” with technical, organisational and regulatory measures to “limit the risk of serious road accidents and increase road safety”.
The document was developed by an interdepartmental working group, established by order of the Minister of Transport and Communications, with the participation of representatives of the competent (by “competent”, “relevant” is meant) ministries and institutions, the government said.
“The proposed measures unite in a single framework the institutional and technological model for their implementation and the necessary changes in the regulatory framework. The main goal is a transition to proactive road safety management based on risk analysis, data exchange between institutions, a clear distribution of responsibilities and monitoring of results,” the statement said.
“The measures are organised in six interrelated areas and cover institutional management, intelligent road infrastructure and intelligent transport systems, vehicle technical condition, law enforcement and technological control, road user behaviour and the human factor, as well as medical accident prevention and post-incident response,” it said.
“The State Agency for Road Traffic Safety is assigned a leading role in risk management and monitoring the implementation of measures, and road control and administrative penalty activities are centralized in the Ministry of Interior as a Single Control Body,” it said, assigning capital letters to the last few words.
The Motor Vehicle Administration Agency retains its functions of licensing and control of transport enterprises, technical inspections, training and exams of candidate drivers, the statement said, without clarifying what difference this is meant to make.
On September 8, The Sofia Globe was witness to a convoy of National Protection Service vehicles transporting Radev from Sofia to a photo-op of a Chinese investment in Plovdiv. With flashing lights and pushing other vehicles off the passing lane in the motorway, it was simply a marvellous vehicle for the promotion of road safety.
This was at the close of a long weekend in which luxury and less luxurious cars were travelling on the Trakia Motorway at speeds well in excess of the statutory 140km/h on that motorway. There was no enforcement of the speed limit to be seen.
The solution, it seems, according to the Radev government, is to put the Interior Ministry in charge, under what pro-government media speedily termed a new “mega-agency”. Radev’s government is not the first to virtual-signal action against road deaths, including by administrative measures. The simulation of activity is not dissimilar to the Radev administration’s questionable claims to have acted against high food prices.
As The Sofia Globe reported previously, Bulgaria in 2025 had the highest road death rate in the EU, according to preliminary data posted by the European Commission (EC) on March 24.
(Photo: Petr Pavel/ freeimages.con)
