Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

705 people were killed and 2,028 others injured in 1,863 recorded traffic accidents in Azerbaijan over the eight months of 2012, the Main State Traffic Police Department said.

34 killed children and 159 injured children are among the victims of the accidents.

635 cars' running into pedestrians led to 225 deaths and injured 454 people.

The main reason of road accidents in the country is violation of safety requirements on the road.

The most frequent reason for car accidents is speed limit violations. As a result of such violations, 225 people were killed and 485 were injured in a total of 499 accidents in January-August.

Violations of the rules on crossing roads caused 197 deaths and resulted in 678 people being injured in 489 road accidents. Failure to observe road crossing rules is the third most probable cause of collisions, with 167 accidents, 38 people killed and 218 injured.

It is worth mentioning that drunk driving led to 55 accidents, with 24 deaths and 65 people injured.

There are more reasons for the rising numbers of road accidents, and the increasing number of cars is one of the obvious ones. According to official statistics, 29,718 cars were imported to Azerbaijan in 2011, which is 26.9 percent more than in 2010.

Fatal cases up

According to Kamran Aliyev, an official of the Main State Traffic Police Department, a ban on using obsolete cars would help to prevent the increase in traffic accidents.

"The numbers of road accidents and injured people are falling in Azerbaijan, but at the same time, the number of deaths on the road is rising," Aliyev said. "The decrease in the number of road accidents by 179 over the eight months is not small, taking into account the increase by 73,000 cars in Azerbaijan. However, what can explain a rise by 88 cases of fatal traffic accidents? No one stops operating outdated vehicles today, though the most fatal cases are linked to driving such cars."

According to Aliyev, such vehicles cannot be regarded as incapacitated from the technical point of view, but are unable to stand a blow in traffic accidents, which makes fatal cases inevitable.

Such cars mainly include those made by AvtoVAZ, a Russian automobile manufacturer formerly known as VAZ.

"People have to realize that [the term of] using these cars should not surpass 20 years," Aliyev said.

Aliyev said obsolete cars have to be disposed in Azerbaijan and the government has to pass a special decision on the issue.

Lack of road culture

The fatal cases on the road are also connected with the road culture of both drivers and pedestrians.

Accident numbers can indicate the drivers' culture. The culture of behaving on the road has to be engrained from childhood. Due to the start of the academic year, the month of road safety called "Attention, children!" is being held in Azerbaijan from September 10 to October 10, the Main State Traffic Police Department said.

The main goal of the event is enhancing measures to prevent children and teenagers from getting involved in car accidents and stepping up road safety education of schoolchildren.

If a student knows the rules of behavior on the road, he or she will behave properly even after graduating from school. Nowadays, more crosswalks, underground and overland pedestrian crossings have been constructed in the country, especially in the capital Baku.

However, pedestrians continue to violate the road crossing rules, notwithstanding the fact that the fine for improper crossing of a road has been raised to 20 manats ($25). More than 5,000 pedestrians have been fined in Baku this year.

Meanwhile, driving culture is equally important for safety of both pedestrians and drivers. Driving culture should be nurtured by driving schools and those who issue driver's licenses should check the level of the person's culture.

A tragic accident happened recently in a Baku suburb that killed seven and injured 41 passengers of a bus after it collided with a train, which shows the need to increase drivers' competence.

About 100 bus drivers were recently fired over traffic violations, the Main State Traffic Police Department said. The Department plans to use passengers as a source of information on the bus drivers' work.

7,317 drivers have been punished this year for driving through the red light. 1,303 drivers abused road crossing rules and regulations on maneuvering, according to the traffic police.

The problems with traffic safety can be solved only with the help of all those involved.

Nearly 3,500 people die on the world's roads every day, which makes 1.2 million people loss annually, and 20-50 million are injured or disabled every year. Financial and moral damages inflicted by traffic accidents are grounds to call them one of the main threats to national security.