The roads in Bosnia and Herzegovina are the worst in Europe and in Moldova, according to research. If we add the number of cars and reckless drivers, the number of accidents that we see every day is an ever-increasing number. Experts agree that something has to be done as soon as possible.
The Department for Information and Dokumentation of the Auto-Motorcycle Club of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced in a statement that last year, the number of road accidents in Bosnia and Herzegovina rose more than a thousand compared to 2021. In the last year, more than 85 traffic accidents were reported, which means that there were more than 85 accidents every day on the roads.
According to the statistics collected from the compétent institutions Federal Police Administration, Cantonal Ministry of the Interior, MUP of Republika Srpska and MIA of Br ko District 31,321 traffic accidents occurred in 2022 on the roads of Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which 31,209 were recorded in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and 9,894 were recorded in the Republic of Srpska. The number of traffic accidents with injured persons rose to 299, compared to 2021, BIHAMK said.
As a member of the United Nations, Bosnia and Herzegovina should follow their guidelines and, to begin with, adopt strategies and action plans for traffic safety at the state level, said Osman Lindov, a professor at the Faculty of Traffic and Communications of the University of Sarajevo. He notes that the highway network in Bosnia and Herzegovina is in a very bad condition.
You have that road towards Epan Polje that doesn t even deserve to be a local road and it is a main road. You have a lot of such sections in Krajina, which try to achieve something with traffic signals about the danger bears on the road, or you drive at your own risk or you can you be struck by lightning, Lindov said.
The most common cause of traffic accidents is excessive speed, loss of right-of-way and alcohol, according to data from Republika Srpska's Ministry of Internal Affairs. The RS Traffic Safety Agency reminds us that in the past few years, they have been working on numerous campaigns regarding road safety, and infrastructure works have also been announced.
Here, from the roads of the Republika Srpska, they announced the removal of 12 dangerous places, the so-called black spots. ''S a good step, it seems to me, that in some places that in the past period were characterized by the number of traffic accidents, so I say, to eliminate those causes that lead to the occurrence of traffic accidents, says Milija Radovi of the RS Agency for Traffic Safety.
Professor Lindov reminds us that Deficiencies are visible everywhere. From driver education to the vehicles themselves and infrastructure, there are many things that contribute to the safety of a driver. The design methods that are being developed today do not meet the criteria due to outdated standards.
Our standards are already about 20 years old, for the new roads we build do not meet the criteria that should be met according to some European directives and countries that take care of that road infrastructure, Lindov said.
Our interlocutors agree that numerous traffic safety campaigns can prevent and reduce the number of road accidents. One of the initiatives announced by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Communications is the ban on the use of mobile phones while driving, which has been deemed one of the main causes of traffic accidents in the EU.