More trucks involved in accidents
Almost every day we hear about a serious road accident. And when in such an accident a heavy vehicle is involved, the consequences are even more serious. But there are solutions to reduce the number of casualties in the road accidents. The police chief commissioner Cristian Calin, vice general manager of the Road Direction in the General Inspectorate of Romanian Police talked about these solutions within the conference organized by Ziua Cargo in Mamaia.
In 2009, in comparison with 2008, there were fewer severe road accidents. We can notice the fact that the accidents in which the commercials vehicles were involved with a degree of guilt have a relatively low share: 2.51% of the total number of the severe accidents. The degree of victimization was of only 3.75% for deceased, 2.65% for severely injured and 5% of light injuries.
The first 4 months of 2010 - alarm for hauliers
During the first 4 months of this year, compared with the same period last year, nationwide there were 2,384 serious road accidents (-345), in which 610 people were killed (-94), 2,211 people were severely injured (-46) and 821 lightly injured (-63). But...
"In the first 4 months we registered decreases of the total number of accidents. If we think logically, we also have decreases of the traffic volume, of around 15%, between January and April 2010, according to the data provided by the Road Police monitoring system on DN1. But we have increases of the number of accidents in the merchandise transport... This is an emergency signal", showed chief commissioner Cristian Calin.
Another signal was emitted regarding the increase of the number of accidents in the passenger transport with minibuses.
Beware of pirates!
Regarding the passenger transport, we have o mention the fact that the Road Police started a series of actions to reduce the "piracy" in the road transport. Only in April, they applied 5,082 sanctions. "No one escaped the control... We created a data basis regarding the pirates in the passenger transport. But unfortunately it is very difficult to prove the illegal character of a passenger transport", said chief commissioner Cristian Calin.
137 black spots on the DNs
In the attempt to reduce the number of serious road accidents, the Road Police created a map of "black spots" on the national roads network. But the drivers should drive not only prudently, but with maximum of attention on these roads.
"We currently have only 24 national roads where we have the black spots marked. A black spot, as definition, is a section of a road with a length of maximum 1 km and where in 5 consecutive years we registered at least 10 severe accidents, with at least 10 people killed or severely injured. Regarding the serious accident in Scanteia, Iasi, which happened at the railway crossing, where 16 people were killed, and 1 was severely injured, taking into consideration the fact that it was only one accident, the place doesn't qualify as black spot", explained the chief commissioner.
The highest number of black spots are on DN1 (641 km, 41 black spots - one every 15 km), DN2 (482 km, 25 black spots, one every 20 km), DN7 (10 black spots, one every 60 km), DN7 (9 black spots, one in every 15 km) etc.
"The last 3 years, we initiated campaigns to reduce the degree of victimization on these black spots, through low-cost measures. An example is the DN2 - DN1D crossroads at Urziceni (Albesti-Paleologu), where we registered a lot of accidents. We found a solution, with the help of some cans - plastic parapets, we geometrized the crossroads, we placed some traffic signs for priority and, since November 2008 and until now, we haven't registered any victims in that spot, not even light injuries", underlined the chief commissioner Cristian Calin.
We will get back to you with details regarding the subject and we will try, with the help of the Road Police, to initiate a series of articles in our magazine regarding the "black spots", because "an informed driver is a careful driver". And a careful driver could save lives...
Cristina TOBESCU
cristina.tobescu@ziuacargo.ro
Publicat in revista Ziua Cargo din June 2010
