Over 16,000 kilometers of guardrails on the roads in our country need to be replaced or installed.

This is about 40% of the total length of the republican network.

The assessment is by the "Road Infrastructure" Agency and is part of the project of a new regulation on restraint systems, which aims to increase road safety.

However, according to experts, it is necessary to adopt a methodology that assesses all the risks and features of the roads in our country in order to reduce accidents.

New and old guardrails alternate in Rusensko - this is the assessment of long-term driving instructor Petar Savakov.

"There are many roads in Rousse that were fixed, but the guardrails did not.

For example, the road junction for Nikolovo.

The guardrails there are in a deplorable state," said Savakov.

Over 350 km of highways in our country must be secured

On the road to Chervena voda and Kubrat, according to Savakov, another extreme has been reached - redundant guardrails have been installed.

"There is a field on the side, they are placed on the bank, and the bank outside the settlement is designated for the movement of cyclists and mopeds.

If a car blows a tire on this road, it cannot stop on the side.

And it stays on the road.

And this guardrail is dangerous for traffic," said Savakov.

The new ordinance on restraint systems, which has been uploaded for public discussion, provides for the replacement of unfit guardrails or the installation of new ones where they are missing on the republic's roads.

This must be done within 10 years of the entry into force of the regulation.

For municipal ones, the term is even longer - 15 years.

Desislava Paunova - member of the API Board: "Perhaps, first of all, these will be the sections with the highest intensity of traffic and sections that currently do not have restriction systems installed on them, but it is necessary to install them.

With the installation of new restriction systems, with the installation of elements that are currently included in this standard, such as initial elements, such as buffers, such as terminals, we really want to achieve a prevention and reduce road transport traumatism".

The Highway Safety Institute has identified guardrail replacement as a piecemeal job.

They insist on a comprehensive methodology.

Georgi Galabov - expert at the Institute for Road Safety: "Because the road and road safety are not just guardrails, they are not just markings, they are not just signs.

They are not just asphalt.

They are a combination of factors.

At the moment, there is no unified methodology that assesses the risk where, what is the traffic and what are the dangers of the specific road, what kind of road accident can happen".

45 Macedonian tourists lost their lives in 2021 in the bus accident on AM "Struma".

The leading version of the tragedy is the driver's fault, but according to experts and the lawyers of the victims' relatives, at the time of the accident there were also a number of problems with the road, including the guardrails.

After the tragedy, new ones were installed.

But could this cruel disaster have been prevented?

Georgi Galabov - expert at the Institute for Road Safety: "Our analysis showed many months before the accident on AM "Struma" that the entire section has many black spots and this is according to the methodology we borrowed from Switzerland.

Unfortunately, the months have shown that this methodology is apparently quite adequate for the time, because the accident of AM "Struma" happened.

We have raised the alarm that this highway is dangerous the way it is and there could be accidents.

Unfortunately, this happened and people died."

Desislava Paunova - member of the API Board: "There is also a legal analysis that shows the losses that the state has suffered in the last 10 years as a result of road accidents.

And the amount that has been calculated for these losses amounts to much more than the money invested in roads, including the construction of such roads for 10 years - 27 billion euros are the losses that we have suffered as a country as a result of traumatism".

According to preliminary calculations, about BGN 3 billion will be needed for the restrictive systems on the republican roads, and BGN and a half for the municipal ones.

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