I have had the chance to drive in many different European countries, but such excess of traffic police just standing by the roads as in Bulgaria I have not seen anywhere. It is obviously not helping to prevent accidents as Bulgaria still has one of the highest road related death rates in Europe.

The goverment is now going to take policemen away from other departments and as a result real criminals will have an even better time in Bulgaria.

Many European states have found by now that it is much more productive [...]

Read the full comment to put cameras on intersections and on dangerous roads. Somehow, this is not really happening in Bulgaria either.

As for prevention - this is a word that Bulgarians don't understand or don't want to understand...

There were plenty of cops around this winter to collect fines for driving without lights on in broad daylight. (I wonder how many accidents that actually prevents?) They set up stings for that all over the place because it was easy. But running red lights, passing in dangerous situations, reckless speeding, parking or stopping in driving lanes--all the things that cause so many of the accidents here--those they completely ignore because it takes more than just sitting in your car by the side of the road and putting out your little stop sign.

The other huge [...]

Read the full comment issue here is simple prevention. There are so many things on the roads--huge holes cars are trying to avoid, trash dumpsters, illegally parked or stopped cars, jaywalking pedestrians--keeping the roads clear and in drivable condition would pay of in fewer accidents. And please, prevent pedestrian death by getting rid of all the pedestrian crossings and putting in walk-overs instead. But thinking ahead and implementing preventive strategies is just not a Bulgarian talent. They only work in reaction mode and that normally requires a really big crisis for them to see the need to react.

More police on the road aren't going to do any good because they'll just do the same things the police now do. Sit around lazily in their cars ignoring those who are really endangering the road while picking off the easy targets--the poor guys who simply forgot to turn their lights on!

They haven't. We're still plagued by these corrupt scum who clearly think Bulgaria joined the African Union not the European Union in 2007.

There always seem to be plenty of traffic police on the main highways ready and willing to pull over any foreign registered vehicles and demand a bribe from the drivers. Unless things have changed drastically since I last drove in Bulgaria a car with a foreign license plate was just like a rolling bank for the police who'd let Bulgarian cars speed past them and then pull over the tourists.