site.btaInterior Minister: Traffic Barriers in Bulgaria Are Compromised, Have Missing Elements

Speaking at a roundtable organized by Democratic Bulgaria and dedicated to road safety, risk assessment, and effective management of public resources, here on Tuesday, Minister of Interior Ivan Demerdzhiev said that his Ministry has taken steps regarding traffic barriers. He reported that the General Directorate National Police is actively working on this matter, as it has become apparent that this is a system that is not fully implemented in Bulgaria, nor is it being implemented in a way that ensures road safety. Demerdzhiev specified that some elements of traffic barriers in Bulgaria are missing, while others have been compromised.

He added: "We have no explanation as to why there are two bolt holes in the traffic barrier, whilst the posts driven into the ground – to which the guardrails are secured – have only one each. The bolts used to secure the traffic barriers should be specialized and individually marked, which ensures their strength and ability to withstand impact."

The Minister warned: "Entire components designed to absorb kinetic energy on impact are missing. These are not fitted to our traffic barriers, which are attached directly to the posts. The balancing element that absorbs the energy of the impact is missing."

Demerdzhiev urged the forum not to rush to concrete traffic barriers as a solution, as they present other problems. He added: "We need to find a way of organizing the construction of the safety facilities, so that the mistakes we are encountering today are not repeated." He pointed to his deputy, Kaloyan Kaloyanov, as the person in charge of a team working on improving the road safety measures in the country.

The Minister stated that there are complex solutions to the traffic accidents in Bulgaria and added that high-risk areas must be identified, including those where people have been injured or killed, those where unauthorized races take place. He added that there is a major problem with the road infrastructure, as the road surface often has poor grip. The Interior Ministry has taken to install traffic bollards in some places that were identified as high-risk.

The Interior Ministry, the Regional Development and Public Works Ministry, and the Ministry of Transport are discussing legislative amendments to propose. Some of these relate to provisions that are currently ineffective, while others concern restrictions on the movement of heavy-duty trucks in the left-hand lane of motorways. The Interior Ministry is also looking into the issue of high-risk drivers, often ones that are young and inexperienced, as well as on the issue of serving penalty decrees.

The Minister said that work is underway to ensure the full utilization of toll cameras. "It turns out that they have many capabilities that are not being utilized," he said and added that by making full use of these cameras, it is possible to identify risky manoeuvres, behaviour and high-risk vehicles, so that traffic police can take preventative measures before an accident occurs.

The Interior Ministry and the Transport Ministry carried out joint operations to assess the condition of lorries. As a result, over the next few weeks it will be impossible to book an appointment for tyre changes, said Demerdzhiev, noting that the technical condition of the lorries and their tyres is poor.

Demerdzhiev reported that there is a plan to deploy an increasing number of unmarked Interior Ministry vehicles to actively monitor traffic offences.

On July 12, the Institute for Road Safety called for an urgent investigation into what it says were striking similarities between two fatal crashes involving heavy trucks on the Trakia Motorway, accusing state institutions of failing to examine possible common causes. On July 17, the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Ivan Shishkov, told Parliament that comprehensive work is needed on the regulation on motorway crash barriers. On July 27, a city bus crashed through a central barrier and entered oncoming traffic on Tsarigradsko Shose Boulevard in Sofia.