site.btaFuture System Will Flag High-risk Drivers to Road Police

The government is developing a system in which all information from cameras used to create profiles of drivers on the road will be displayed on road police officers' tablets, allowing them to take preventive action. The departments involved are the Ministries of Interior, of Transport and Communications, and of Regional Development and Public Works, Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said on Thursday during a hearing at the National Assembly Committee on Internal Security and Public Order.

Demerdzhiev was responding to a question from Vazrazhdane MP Petar Petrov about the Interior Ministry's coordination with the authorities responsible for the roads, including municipal governments and the Road Infrastructure Agency.

Demerdzhiev said the aim of the project is that when a driver is identified as a high-risk road user, they can be stopped in advance. "I believe this will have a positive effect in the fight against road accidents," he said.

A new concept for traffic control will be proposed, placing control entirely within the Interior Ministry, as it is currently carried out by three institutions: the Interior Ministry, the Road Transport Administration and the toll system administration, whose employees check vignettes. This model is clearly not working, as the Road Transport Administration does not have the necessary staffing capacity, the minister said.

"We maintain active dialogue with the Road Infrastructure Agency, and in one of the sections with a high number of registered accidents – near [the Sofia suburb of] Vladaya – a project is due to be implemented to improve safety using plastic barriers designed to prevent vehicles from entering the carriageway. We have also taken steps to improve safety on the road through neighbouring settlements if the main road through Vladaya is not used," the minister explained.

According to him, coordination with municipalities is more difficult, but everything possible is being done to improve it.