Bulgarian Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov has disclosed the latest alarming death toll on the country's roads. According to the survey, statistics show that 1000 people are killed every year on Bulgarian roads and well over 10 000 injured, of whom 30 per cent are maimed for life. Tsvetanov revealed those numbers on September 1, as reported by the Focus news agency.

The survey was conducted under a 2008-2010 memorandum for cooperation and understanding signed by the two countries' Interior Ministries.

Tsvetanov said that more than 39 000 people in the European Union are killed every year in traffic accidents. In Bulgaria alone, for every one million people, 131 people are killed. This puts Bulgaria in 21^st place in Europe.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands is rated as the second safest country to drive in, with a mere 43 deaths per million people.

"There are serious challenges facing the government – how will it tackle the problem. Everyone will have to pull actively together in this regard if we are to alleviate the situation," he said.

Tsvetanov also said he wanted to implement the Dutch model of issuing fines to drivers who had committed traffic violations. In the Netherlands, drivers must first pay the fine. Only later can they then appeal against it. Should they fail to pay it inside six months, the penalties "are severe".

"This is a strategy which will be considered for Bulgaria. There is no point in raising fines in this country when you can't even collect them in the first place," he said.

"We have to tackle the element of corruption as well, as when the penalties are increased, so is the potential for illegal practices," he said.

Tsvetanov also said that one of the reasons for the high number of road accidents on Bulgarian roads was the Bulgarian mentality, "Our experience shows that the moment Bulgarian motorists leave Bulgaria they become very discipline drivers and obey traffic rules of the respective country".

The condition of the road infrastructure had to improve, Tvsetanov added. He noted that the Netherlands' experience of investing revenue from traffic fines into road infrastructure would be discussed in Bulgaria.

This latest assessment has shown little or no improvement from the last figures released in June 2009. Back then, the safest countries to drive in Europe were hailed as Sweden, followed by the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Switzerland – with less than 50 deaths per one million people, followed by Norway, Germany, Ireland, Finland, Spain, France, Denmark, Luxembourg and Italy.

Most other countries exceed the norm, with Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Poland and Lithuania reaching as high as 150 deaths per million people.

For the period 2001-2008, safety conditions in France, Luxembourg and Portugal have witnessed the most dramatic improvements, whereas in Romania and Bulgaria they have actually deteriorated.

The European Union aims to slash road deaths in 2010 by a half in comparison to 2001 figures, but these targets now appear over-ambitious. In accordance with the current rate of decline, seven to eight more years would be necessary for this to be accomplished, although some countries like France, Belgium and Spain are indicating better improvement than others.