- The week of the road safety

The research, which we conduct on demand of the Association and the International Fund "United World", will allow planning complex of activities to overcome the road transport crisis in Ukraine

Eugene Kopatko, Director of the sociological company Research & Branding Group

Mainpage » Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

The Address of the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

to support Road Safety Week in Ukraine

(The original, in the Ukrainian language, see the translation below)

OF CURRENT INTEREST

It is possible to change the situation on the roads of Ukraine for the better only by joining the efforts

Committee on legislative support of law enforcement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine held the hearings on the subject of “First aid for road accidents and “safe road” as the element of insuring road safety”. The hearings were initiated by the Committee and Inter-factional deputy union “For Road Safety”.

Viktor Shvets, Chairman of the Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement opened the meeting by informing that the deputies of Ukraine, the representatives of the ministries, departments and non-governmental organizations, foreign road safety experts will be taking part in the hearings. Among those present there were a lot of scientists – academicians, doctors of sciences, professors who represent Transport Academy of Ukraine, Kharkiv Automobile and Highway University, Bogomolets National Medical University, Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

According to the UN decision as of May 11, 2011, the Decade of Action for Road Safety has been launched around the world. The goal is to provide long-term and coordinated actions to maintain the road traffic safety at the regional, national and local levels.

Official data shows that each year, nearly 1.3 million people die in road accidents. Last year in Ukraine 4 709 people died, 38 917 people were injured. This year 3 670 people died, more than 30 000 were injured. One in three killed in road traffic accident is a young person under the age of 29. Every 18 minutes an accident with road victims happens on the roads of Ukraine, every 118 minutes one person dies in the road accident. According to the information of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the following roadways are classified as the most dangerous: international route – Kyiv – Chop, Odessa – Melitopol – Novoazovsk, Kherson – Dzhankoy, Feodosiya – Kerch, Kyiv – Kovel - Yagodyn; national route – Zhytomyr – Chernivtsi, Mukachevo – Ivano-Frankivsk – Rogatyn – Lviv, Lviv – Ternopil.

What are the main causes of the road traffic accidents? First of all, the state government bodies and local authorities neglect holding activities aimed at maintaining and repairing of the roads, resuming the safety of roadways and highways. In many cases the elements of safety are ignored at the planning stages, road construction regulations are violated, there is no proper response of prosecution and law enforcement officials, especially the State Automobile Inspection for the facts of complete disregard of requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On the Road Traffic” applicable to elimination of hazardous areas and road traffic accident clusters.

I am convinced that all present here at least once in their life saw as so-called patch repair lasted for months and nobody cared that the hole in the middle of the road was the main cause of many road accidents. But the road accident risk analysis provided by the General Procuracy of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs shows us that these issues are being simply ignored. Meanwhile, the State Automobile Inspection, road and community services have known about all these dangerous areas and accident clusters for many years. There are more than 1200 areas of accident clusters on the street and road network of Ukraine, including 242 areas on highways and 959 on public streets.

Traditionally in our country, the primary responsibility for road accidents lies with drivers, pedestrians and other individual road users. I personally, like many of our voters, have a hard time understanding why the areas of accident clusters have not been dealt with and liquidated in years. European countries set a course for improvement of planning, construction and operation of the roads and road infrastructure, in such a way they minimize the possibility for a driver to violate the traffic rules and provide maximum protection for most vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

According to the experts of World Health Organization, if no urgent action is taken by 2020, road accidents will become the main cause of death worldwide, leaving behind cardiovascular disease and AIDS. In addition to the tremendous human tragedies, road traffic accidents cause a considerable financial damage. According to the World Bank estimations, the loss of the Ukrainian economy from road accidents amounts to 5 billion dollars annually.

To overcome the rising toll of deaths on the roads of Ukraine, we need the partnership of authorities, business, non-governmental organizations, mass-media and, most importantly, the commitment of every citizen of Ukraine. The whole society should confront the road deaths. Only by uniting our efforts we can change the situation on the roads of Ukraine for better.

A large group of the Verkhovna Rada deputies created the Inter-factional union “For Road Safety”. Now it is the turn for all state authorities, political parties, movements, non-governmental organizations of Ukraine to follow their lead. Given the growing trend of globalization, perspectives of the EU associate membership and Euro 2012, Ukraine is obliged to implement the best international experience in road safety.

The Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement, Inter-factional deputy union “For Road Safety”, the Ukrainian Road Safety Association initiated a holding of the First Inter-Parliamentary meeting on road safety in Ukraine. We have invited parliamentarians from 43 countries and 18 international organizations to participate in this event. We hope that this forum will take place in Kyiv in late March-early April 2012.

Global plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety recommends focusing on 5 components:

Road safety management
Safe roads and mobility
Safe vehicles
Safe behaviour of road users
First aid to victims of road accidents (road emergency service)

These activities have to become the basis of the national programs for all UN members-states. Within the framework of preparation for the First Inter-Parliamentary meeting, we plan to discuss two of five components of the Global plan during the Committee hearings. Namely: safe roads and mobility, first aid to victims of the road accidents. Currently, 15 draft laws aimed at improvement of road safety management, making vehicles and behavior of roads users safer are registered in the Verkhovna Rada. Most of the law draftsman suggest addressing these issues by strengthening criminal and administrative liability.

As for the issue of first aid to road accident victims we don't have any registered legislative initiative. That is why we have decided to propose at the hearing these two components of Global plan for the Committee’s consideration. After considering the results of discussions, Committee members and deputies could prepare and submit for Parliament's consideration the package plan of law of Ukraine, which will embrace all five components of road safety. We plan to discuss the specific proposals on how we can make our roads safer, which advanced technologies of accident prevention we have to consider, which technical and structural elements are needed to ensure the safety of the pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Finally, we have to decide which measures and at what level should be taken to eliminate so-called road clusters. It is very important to determine the following answers: how do we improve the efficiency of responding to the emergency situations caused by accidents, how do we improve the ability of health care system and other systems such as the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the State Automobile Inspection to provide first aid to victims of the accidents, how do we ensure early rehabilitation and support to victims and those who lost relatives in road accidents, how can we minimize psychological and material losses? After considering the results of the Committee hearings, all the proposals will be worked out and recommendations will be approved, these materials will be forwarded to all interested parties, including the Government of Ukraine.

Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement, and the Inter-factional deputy union “For Road Safety” will put the most efforts to change the situation on Ukrainian roads for better. We urge the authorities, the public and every caring citizen to support the UN initiative and join the movement for imposing order on the roads of Ukraine.

Evgen Prusenko, the Deputy Chairman of the State Road Administration, the Chairman of the Commission for Civil Service Reorganization, said that the road safety is an indicator of life quality. According to him, the problem of accidence has the systematic nature and coordinated work of authorities responsible for this sphere is very important. However, the Coordinating Council of Road Safety, which was created last year under the jurisdiction of the Cabinet of Ministers didn't start its systematic operations yet.

The length of public roads in Ukraine is over 169 thousand kilometers but we have only 2,5 thousand kilometers of roads classified as high-quality roads, i.e. those which have four separate lanes that makes collision of oncoming cars almost impossible. Condition of internal roads can be assessed as critical. Most of the roads were built in 1960-70, 70% of roads overran the terms of usage and have not been thoroughly repaired for 30-40 years. In addition, most roads were not designed for high-speed oversized vehicles. Over the last years the level of budget financing of road sector varies from 14% to 30%. The funds are primarily appropriated for road safety. However, there are some positive results: over the past five years the number of road accidents has reduced almost by half.

Mykhailo Berlin, the President of the NGO “Ukrainian Road Safety Association”:

- I would like to focus attention of those present on the role of non-governmetnal organizations in reducing the road accidents. For Ukraine, the death and injury rate from the road accidents is one of the most burning issues. However, people do not perceive it as a big problem. Therefore, they do little to solve it. Unfortunately, administrative and technical measures continue to be the dominant scheme in solving the problems of the road accidents. But as the experience of leading countries shows us, the basis of a stable system of the road safety is an active civil society and development of a partnership in business, government and civil society.

In our country an unjustifiably little attention is paid to the human error and its impact on the road safety, although the human error is the cause of over 70% of all traffic accidents. The road is a resource for general use. The country is responsible for the road safety and reduction of the accidents. The country builds roads and it must maintain them in a good condition. The task of road users is conscious behavior and mutual respect, taking into account each other's interests, obeying traffic rules, assistance.

Based on the nature of the resource, there are two ways the human error can influence the situation on the road. The first one is the behavior of drivers and pedestrians. The more cultural behavior of people on the roads, the less congestion and accidents we will have. The second one is a civil activity of the population, which determines the accountability and effectiveness of the government in the maintenance of roads, pavement quality assurance, work of the supervisors and police forces.

When making a decision it is important to consider the possible negative implications it may have on other people. For example, when parking in the wrong place, the road-user considers only his own benefit – to park the car close to the location necessary for him. But he does not pay any attention that he has blocked the road for other transport, causing congestion.

If the government is unaccountable, then it has not only any incentive to improve traffic conditions, but it may have incentives to maximize its welfare at the public cost. For example, there is a possibility to be unpunished for violating traffic rules. Unaccountable government has no incentive to take measures to reduce traffic jams, when it is possible to travel through them with sirens. In addition, high quality roads are built and maintained, not where most people walk or drive, but where it is convenient for our officials. Business and shopping centers are built in the places where road traffic is extremely busy. When the permission for such constructions is given, then social needs are neglected, and only corrupt motives are taken into account. Thus, the situation on the roads largely depends on the level of carefulness and attentiveness people treat each other, as well as the level of state support in providing necessary conditions for cooperation.

One of the prominent researchers in the field of traffic noted that the current system relies too heavily on the government regulation and too little on the responsibility of people. To change the society, educate responsible and demanding road users is one of the main tasks of non-governmental organizations. Non-governmental organizations give the possibility to form social environment that can adjust the behavior of representatives of the risk group and also can help the state to solve these problems. Non-governmental organizations of the European countries that have reached the lowest rate of road accident death, run large-scale social campaigns, work at improving driving skills, conduct research activities in the sphere of road safety and have access to statistics.

Effective non-governmental organizations started to appear in Ukraine, one of them is the public project “Road condition monitoring and repair, 4road.net”, which offers its assistance to the mayor of Odessa in the improvement of city roads. In March this year the project has sent an open letter to the mayors of 32 Ukrainian cities. Most portal users believe that the corruption and disorder of the road administration authority is the main reason of poor road surface condition. The TUR organization actively cooperates with Kharkiv and Kharkiv region authorities. There are other examples as well.

For the third time in Ukraine our association conducts the Road Safety Week in cooperation with the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine as an informative outreach campaign meant to unite the state, business and nonprofit organizations. This year the Road Safety Week was sponsored by the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine under the slogan "Partnership for Safety!”

Together with the International Fund United World the association conducted a sociological research on the attitude of Ukrainian citizens to the road safety issue. Non-governmental organizations can provide invaluable help for the state in reducing the number of road injuries and, consequently, reducing the huge economic losses of the state from the road accidents. The impact of this sector is still underestimated by the government. This is the reason why the non-governmental organizations lack financing. When the state realizes the importance the role played by the non-governmental organizations in the reduction of the number of road accident deaths and injuries, this pressing problem will be possible to solve more efficiently.

28 participants have addressed the Committee hearings. The following participants were present: Anatoliy Franchuk, the Director of the State Enterprise "Ukrainian Medical Center of Road Safety and Information Technologies" of the Ministry of Health, Grygoriy Marchenko, the Director of Rescue Forces Management Department of the Ministry of Emergencies of Ukraine, Sergiy Gusarov, the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on legal policy, the corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Juridical Science, Oleksandr Skybinetsky, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the National Security of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on National Security and Defense, Volodymyr Malyshev, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Legislative Support and parliamentary control of the internal affairs bodies and other law enforcement bodies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement, Alla Khabarova, the General Secretary of the National Committee of the Red Cross Society of Ukraine, Volodymyr Romanyshyn, the president of the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine, Anatoliy Svintsitskiy, the pro-rector in research and educational, medical work of Bogomolets National Medical University, the Doctor of Medical Science, Professor, Soams Job, an expert on road safety (Australia) and other participants of the committee hearings.

Following the results of the discussion, the recommendations of hearings were approved. They say, in particular, about the need of giving special attention to the objectives to reduce the number of road accident victims, which have to be achieved by the end of the UN Decade of Action. And also to speed up preparations for the second reading of the draft law "On the system of emergency help to the population on a single telephone number 112," to amend changes of the Code of Ukraine about administrative violations in order to harmonize the existing system of penalties, to consider the prioritized proposals in law-drafting activities, aimed at the improvement of the street road network, to provide improved trainings for drivers and the State Automobile Inspection officers, to raise the responsibility of road users by ensuring its security.

The Cabinet of Ministers has been advised to review the Strategy of road safety improvement in Ukraine by 2015, by focusing its attention on the effective road safety management through the employment of modern methods and technologies.

Members of the Committee hearings were unanimous in thinking that to overcome the rising toll of road deaths in our country it is necessary to implement the partnership of the government, business, public, media and the responsibility of every citizen in particular.

The presentations of participants of hearings are available on the website of the Association.

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