Q:
A:
New measures to improve road safety
Belgrade,
29 July 2009
Minister of Infrastructure Milutin Mrkonjic stated that his Ministry has prepared a set of measures aimed at improving road safety and reducing or fully removing accident “black spots”.
Milutin Mrkonjic
Mrkonjic said that there are nearly 250 “black spots” on Serbian roads and added that this number needs to be reduced by at least by 100 before the end of this year.
Serbia has suffered damage worth nearly $1 billion as a result of traffic accidents just in the first half of 2009, while the estimated damage for the whole year stands at around $1.7 billion, he said.
There were 67,708 traffic accidents last year that claimed 897 lives, while 22,275 people were injured, he said.
In the first six months of 2009, 453 people died in car crashes, he said.
Mrkonjic said that the most common causes of traffic accidents include disobeying traffic rules and unsafe behaviour both from both drivers and pedestrians.
By investing only €50 million in roads every year, over the next 20 years we would save the lives of 5,552 people, as well as €400 million, he stated.
Mrkonjic said that according to an international analysis of 3,000 km of Serbian roads, only 1% of roads were marked as really safe, 36% as good, 30% as average and 3% as unsafe.
These results are equivalent to those of EU roads, but we cannot be happy with these results, he said and added that only €300 million have been set aside in previous years for road maintenance.
According to EU estimates, Serbia should set aside €1.5 billion per year for road maintenance, Mrkonjic said, adding that Serbia will try to set aside at least €450 million for this year, while in the future the country will ask for international loans of up to €600 million.
Serbia has suffered damage worth nearly $1 billion as a result of traffic accidents just in the first half of 2009, while the estimated damage for the whole year stands at around $1.7 billion, he said.
There were 67,708 traffic accidents last year that claimed 897 lives, while 22,275 people were injured, he said.
In the first six months of 2009, 453 people died in car crashes, he said.
Mrkonjic said that the most common causes of traffic accidents include disobeying traffic rules and unsafe behaviour both from both drivers and pedestrians.
By investing only €50 million in roads every year, over the next 20 years we would save the lives of 5,552 people, as well as €400 million, he stated.
Mrkonjic said that according to an international analysis of 3,000 km of Serbian roads, only 1% of roads were marked as really safe, 36% as good, 30% as average and 3% as unsafe.
These results are equivalent to those of EU roads, but we cannot be happy with these results, he said and added that only €300 million have been set aside in previous years for road maintenance.
According to EU estimates, Serbia should set aside €1.5 billion per year for road maintenance, Mrkonjic said, adding that Serbia will try to set aside at least €450 million for this year, while in the future the country will ask for international loans of up to €600 million.
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