Romanian Orthodox cleric sprinkle holy water over houses and even cars to bless them.
Now a priest has come up with a novel way of reducing crashes at a notorious blackspot: he sprinkled holy water over a treacherous bend in the road.
A video of the robed priest with a silver cross, sprinkling sanctified water and uttering a blessing on what media called „the death bend” has gone viral on social media.
The unnamed priest, accompanied by a helper, performed the ceremony recently near Bratila, a place in eastern Romania.
More precisely, it was on a bend on the DN11 main road that is a blindspot for motorists,
The ceremony took place five days after a woman died in a crash there. It was not clear if he was asked to perform the ceremony or it was his own initiative.
The bend is just outside the town of Oneşti which goes to Bacău.
Locals say there have been numerous crashes there along the years.
The prayers were aimed to protect motorists passing along that stretch of the road, the Lower Brătila parish said on its Facebook page.
Romania has the highest number of road deaths for its population size in 2020, with 85 fatalities per million people, double the EU average of 42 per million inhabitants.
On Tuesday, a crash involving multiple vehicles including an ambulance and a truck in northeast Romania left seven dead.
Romania had more traffic deaths in 2020 than any other country in EU
