Last weekend, in three separate traffic accidents, which occurred in less than 19 hours in the area of Mrkonjić Grad, Ribnik and Cazin, five people were killed and several others were injured. Roads in Bosnia and Herzegovina are the worst in Europe, along with those in Moldova, research has shown. If we add to that a large number of cars and reckless drivers, the result is an increasing number of accidents that we witness every day. Experts agree that something needs to be done as soon as possible.
The Department for Information and Documentation of the Auto-Motorcycle Club of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced that the number of road accidents in Bosnia and Herzegovina last year was more than a thousand more when compared with 2021. This means that more than 85 traffic accidents occurred on the roads every day during the last year.
“According to the statistical data collected from the competent institutions (Federal Police Administration, Cantonal Ministry of the Interior, MUP of Republika Srpska and MIA of Brčko District), 31,321 traffic accidents occurred on the roads of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2022, of which 21,209 traffic accidents were recorded in In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while in the Republic of Srpska, 9,894 were recorded. The number of traffic accidents with dead/injured persons increased by 299, compared to 2021,” BIHAMK stated.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a member of the United Nations, should follow their guidelines and, to begin with, adopt strategies and action plans for traffic safety at the state level, according to Osman Lindov, a professor at the Faculty of Traffic and Communications of the University of Sarajevo. He notes that the highway network in Bosnia and Herzegovina is in a very bad condition.
“You have that road towards Šćepan Polje that doesn’t even deserve to be a local road, and it is a main road. You have a lot of such sections in Krajina, which try to achieve something with traffic signals about the danger – bears on the road or you drive at your own risk or you can you will be struck by lightning,” says Lindov.
According to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republika Srpska, the most common cause of traffic accidents is inappropriate speed, loss of right-of-way and, to a large extent, alcohol. The RS Traffic Safety Agency reminds that in the past few years, they have been working on numerous campaigns regarding road safety, and infrastructure works have also been announced.
“Here, from the roads of the Republika Srpska, they announced the removal of 12 dangerous places, the so-called black spots, so that’s a good step, it seems to me, that in some places that in the past period were characterized by the number of traffic accidents, so I say, to eliminate those causes that lead to the occurrence of traffic accidents”, believes Milija Radović from the Agency for Traffic Safety of the RS.
Deficiencies are visible everywhere, Professor Lindov reminds. From driver education to the vehicles themselves and infrastructure. The roads that are being designed today do not meet the criteria due to outdated standards.
“Our standards are already about 20 years old, for the new roads we build do not meet the criteria that should be met according to some European directives and countries that take care of that road infrastructure,” says Lindov.
Numerous traffic safety campaigns can help prevent and reduce the number of road accidents, our interlocutors agree. One of them was recently launched by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Communications, and it concerns the ban on the use of mobile phones while driving, which has been assessed as one of the main causes of traffic accidents in the EU.
