Number of fatal road accidents up in 2012
By Nigar Orujova
2,892 traffic accidents were reported in Azerbaijan in 2012, Kamran Aliyev, an official of the Main State Traffic Police Department, said on Tuesday. The accidents left 1,168 people dead and 2,997 injured.
In 2011, 2,890 road accidents were recorded in Azerbaijan, with 1,016 people killed and 3,031 injured.
The increasing number of deaths on the road in Azerbaijan raises concerns.
The main reason of road accidents in the country is violation of safety requirements. The most frequent reason for car accidents is speed limit violations. Failure to observe road-crossing rules is another reason, which leads to pedestrian deaths.
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.
According to the State Statistics Committee, the number of vehicles increases by 50,000-60,000 each year in Azerbaijan.
A number of steps should be taken to reduce the gloomy statistics, including a ban on the use of old cars.
According to Aliyev, 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," Kamran Aliyev said last year. "No one stops operating outdated vehicles today, though the most fatal cases are linked to driving such cars."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.
Aliyev said people have to realize that the term of using these cars should not surpass 20 years.
He added that obsolete cars have to be disposed in Azerbaijan and the government has to pass a special decision on the issue.
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