This weekend, a heavy truck collided with a minibus taking workers from a village in southern Romania on an 89-kilometre journey to work at a supermarket in Bucharest. Ten people were killed, and many others were injured. Fifteen children lost their mothers.
Romanian roads are the most dangerous in Europe. One of the most treacherous is the DN6 which goes from Bucharest, through Alexandria, Craiova, Timisoara and then to the border with Hungary. A total of 87 people died on the 640-kilometres stretch of treacherous tarmac in 2017.
Another death spot is a rail crossing near Iasi where eleven people died in 2013 when a train smashed into a car. Since then, no barriers have been put up and 14 have died in the past two years at the same spot.
Suceava says its public roads are the worst in Romania_ and in Europe. Last year, 104 people died and 254 were seriously injured in the county which has a population of 100,000.
Little wonder that Suceava entrepreneur Stefan Mandachi made headlines as a champion of road safety this spring when he built one metre of highway to urge authorities to build a motorway in Moldova, a region which incredibly has no highways.
Romania has the highest deaths per capita on its roads than anywhere in the European Union, with 96 fatalities per one million inhabitants in 2018 compared to an average of 49 among all 28 EU nations.
Some 60,000 have died in Romanian roads since the 1989 anti-communist uprising, that’s about 2,000 every year.
Romania’s poor road infrastructure has impeded economic development. With a population of 20 million, it has only 800 kilometres of motorways, less than half that of neighboring Hungary even though it is more than double its size, Reuters reported.
After Saturday’s accident, President Klaus Iohannis said: “I am so sorry for the victims, we can say that lack of infrastructure kills,” adding “Infrastructure is not just a political ambition, and it’s not a whim. In the 21st century, we need infrastructure like we need air. Otherwise we will remain backwards.”
A safe driving culture has yet to take root in Romania. Besides the lack of infrastructure, motorists drive too fast or fail to adapt their speed to the conditions, don’t always wear seatbelts while alcohol and drugs contribute to fatalities.
But it’s more than that. There’s a lack of basic respect and consideration for fellow motorists. Some seem to believe „If I don’t get caught it’s not wrong” and policing can be inadequate although the fines are far stiffer than they were a few years ago and police can be more vigilant. Full disclosure: I did a U-turn on a double line last month and police fined me and gave me six points. I apologized and have been much more careful since.
I’ve been told some Romanians drive carelessly because they think: “I’m an important person with business to do, and you are simply holding me up when I’m in a hurry.” Besides, they paid the price of an apartment for their luxury car “not to sit behind some guy in a Dacia.”
There is the over-confident belief that “I drive on this bend every day and have never met an oncoming car. Accidents are what happens to other drivers who’re not as good as me.” Others have icons to protect them or a “pila,” a connection somewhere in the case of an accident.
Even pedestrians are not innocent bystanders in this matrix of errors. They fail to engage with motorists, crossing the road with their backs turned to incoming traffic, or walk behind cars that are reversing without looking.
While Mandachi who brought road safety to public attention blames “government after government who have failed to make road-building a priority,” former President Traian Basescu, was transport minister, says civil servants are also responsible. Among the millions of Romanians who left the country there were 220,000 engineers, “all well-trained competent people left Romania…. It’s a system builds roads, not a manager,” he told the BBC.
Transport Minister Razvan Cuc says the government will implement a national safety strategy “to reduce accidents by half,” by 2020 including an eye scanning system to monitor truck drivers for fatigue. Drivers that fail the test will face stiff fines.
After the accident in Ialomita this weekend, Stefan Mandachi posted a photograph from Iceland on social media to contrast the situation in Romania. A total of four people died last year in car accidents in Iceland. Mandachi says the public needs to press for change, claiming another national characteristic is to blame for the deplorable state of the road infrastructure. “We are passive, we don’t want to risk.”
Foto: Pexels
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