The annual road traffic safety report shows that the situation on Latvian roads has significantly deteriorated over the past year, the police control traffic poorly, drivers have become aggressive, and the roads are full of alcoholics. People are dying. Children are dying.
There is a term in road safety - Vision Zero. It reflects the European Union's dream of safe traffic, in which people would no longer be killed or seriously injured. Unlike other European countries and also our neighbors, Latvia is not approaching this dream but is moving away from it. This is evidenced by the 2020 road traffic safety report presented to the Road Traffic Safety Council by Normunds Krapsis, Deputy Chief of the State Police. The situation is not just bad, the situation is extremely bad, and it is indirectly related to Covid because there has been a significant change in both road users' behavior on the road and monitoring capabilities. Last year, some money was invested in improving traffic safety - 8 million euros. Rumble strips, marked bicycle lanes and protective barriers have been installed, but this is far too little to improve the situation to such an extent that people on Latvian roads no longer die or die less often. The fact that the police wrote 15% fewer records last year does not indicate that the drivers were conscientious. Only that the police were not present at the time of the offenses because they had been sent to monitor people's compliance with the curfew. There is not enough time and people left for traffic monitoring.
The number of officially registered traffic accidents is significantly lower - 18,397 last year, 20,852 the year before. But there is no point in rejoicing about it. It's just that there was less traffic during the curfew and it was less controlled by the police. When the first restrictions of the pandemic were relaxed, the people burst out of their homes and garages, and the quality of traffic became catastrophic. This is evidenced by two road safety indicators - fatalities and near fatalities. Here are the statistics:
In 2020, 139 people died in road traffic accidents, in 2019 - 132.
In 2020, 491 people were seriously injured in road traffic accidents, in 2019 - 462.
The number of minor injuries has decreased in proportion to the reduction in the total number of accidents from 4083 to 3577.
Of course, children also suffer in unsafe traffic - 10 died last year, 618 were injured, and that is on the conscience of adults. Both on the consciences of parents and other road users, as well as the organizers of this awful traffic.
What are the negative tendencies on Latvian roads that create these tragedies? Police officer Normunds Krapsis explains that in the conditions of a pandemic, the proportion of aggressive and reckless drivers has significantly increased. Combined with the police being busy with enforcing the curfew, this aggression had serious consequences. There have been a lot of frontal fatal collisions outside populated areas because the marking of roads is grossly violated. The solid white line. The police have therefore called for increased penalties for this type of violation.
The police and also road safety specialists also want the administrative arrest of drunk drivers to be reinstated. Last year, while changing the course of the administrative process, it was abolished as too harsh a form of punishment. The drunks noticed this and immediately went for a ride. In 2020, 733 traffic accidents were caused by drunk drivers.
Vulnerable road users frequently suffer in these accidents - 43 pedestrians, 15 cyclists, 2 scooter riders have died. 6 people were run over in seemingly uncharacteristic places - in the courtyards of houses, in different adjacent territories. One death even happened right next to the Road Traffic Safety Directorate in Riga - a child was run over there.
The company Latvijas Valsts Ceļi (Latvian State Roads) also has its own observations on the conditions of accidents outside the cities. 80% of serious accidents occurred during the dark hours of the day. Of the 96 fatalities, 43 were vulnerable, mostly the elderly, and it is noteworthy that many of these accidents took place within a 250-meter radius around bus stops and by petrol stations. In many cases, those who had been run over were drunk. From this follows the proposal of Jānis Lange, the head of the Latvijas Valsts Ceļi, to ban the sale of alcohol in petrol stations. So that rural drunkards do not wander around in the middle of the road. It should be noted here, however, that outside the settlements it is simply not possible to walk on the outer edge of the road, especially during the winter, and the fact that people cannot go home safely from the bus stop is not just a problem for the drunks. If there is no sidewalk, what else can you do? You have to take a risk. And some are unlucky.
Latvia's goal declared to Brussels to halve the number of fatalities compared to 2010, when 218 people died in traffic, has not been achieved. However, Vision Zero is still set to be achieved by 2050. It is recorded in the draft of the Road Safety Plan 2021-2027 to be submitted shortly.
Statistics show that it will not be possible to achieve a Vision Zero with existing techniques, namely cheap traffic management solutions and expensive public relations campaigns.
It is necessary to physically separate the flows in the opposite direction and the different types of road users. Then the chances of surviving on Latvian roads will increase significantly.
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