Creator of Road Safety Project “Black Run”, Martin Atanasov, Named Awakener of the Year

Risida Dimitrova, Teodora Tsvetkova

Martin Atanasov winner of Awakener of the Year 2025, Sofia, November 1, 2025 (BTA Photo/Milena Stoykova)

Sofia,

01.11.2025 20:29

(BTA)

Eighteen-year-old Martin Atanasov, creator of an interactive map tracking Bulgaria’s most accident-prone road sections, the “Black Run” (Cherna Pista) map, has been named Awakener of the Year 2025. He was handed the award at an official ceremony in Studio One of the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) on Saturday. He is the youngest recipient in the history of the BNR campaign.

Atanasov won the public vote with his project, which visualizes the country’s most dangerous roads based on data from over 177,000 accidents over the past five years.

Atanasov dedicated the award to Bulgaria’s young and active citizens: “This year, they showed how it’s done: students, young doctors, athletes, and all the volunteers who fight apathy every day. Awakening is the light that guides us through the darkness, and there are many awakeners among us. Our duty as a society is to secure their path forward, especially the young people who are already proving what Bulgaria is capable of.” The award was presented by last year’s winner, Veselin Dimanov.

The BNR Special Award went to Dimitar Bakalov, a resident doctor in the emergency department of the Pazardzhik Hospital. He launched a nationwide school campaign warning students about the dangers of vapes, energy drinks, and nitrous oxide (laughing gas).

Iliyan Rusev – Skuri, from the city of Ruse, Northeastern Bulgaria, on the Danube, received the bTV Media Group Special Award. For the past ten years, he has been training children with physical and mental disabilities free of charge.

For the first time, Sofia Municipality presented its own Special Award to Todora Radeva, director of the Reading Sofia Foundation and creator of cultural projects such as Literary Routes, Literary Meetings, The Hidden Letters, and the first seven editions of the Sofia International Literary Festival.

The remaining finalists: charity initiative I Believe and Help, Blagovesta Pugyova from the Give Time Foundation, journalist and writer Ivan Landzhev, Kristina Pateva-Marinova, a philanthropist supporting numerous causes, Nikolaj Popov, father of Siyana, who died tragically in a car accident, Svetoslav Dimitrov and the volunteers who fought wildfires across Bulgaria, were also recognized at the ceremony.

/RD/