Against a background of a shocking increase in the number of fatal motor vehicle accidents, the Cabinet has ordered a new plan to improve road safety.

In the past few months, the number of serious car accidents has doubled. Since the beginning of 2006, the number of people who have died in vehicle crashes includes 16 children, and more than 6000 people have been injured.

With the summer season and the rush to the coast, there have been a series of fatal accidents in the Black Sea region. Ahead of the season, a group of Bulgarian musicians recorded a special song calling on people to drive carefully. But it appears that few, if any, have been listening.

In Varna on August 5, a new record was set with 41 accidents in a single night, with three people injured.

Traffic police said that most accidents resulted from traffic jams, reckless driving, and driving under the influence of liquor.

On August 8, two young men died and three were critically injured in a head-on collision between two cars on the road to Albena summer resort.

On August 13, four people aged between 18 and 22 died and two were injured in a crash that happened when the group in the car was travelling from one disco to another in the early hours. Traffic police said that the accident appeared to have been caused by a combination of high-speed driving and bumps on the road.

Nn August 10, Interior Minister Roumen Petkov told a news conference that together with Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski, he would propose changes to the traffic law, according to which driving licence and car documents would be confiscated when traffic laws were broken. The documents would be returned to the driver only after the fine was paid. One of the reasons for the changes, according to Petkov, was that in the past few years, unpaid fines had accumulated to about 40 million to 50 million leva.
A new mechanism for collecting fines imposed on foreign drivers in transit through Bulgaria would be considered as well. Fines could be collected at border checkpoints, Petkov said.

Reacting to the number of children who had died in traffic accidents, Petkov said: “We are killing our children”.

The Cabinet decided that by the end of November, a National Strategy for Improving Conditions and Safety on the Roads must be adopted. The strategy will cover the years up to 2010. A short-term safety action plan for 2007 must be adopted as well, the Cabinet said.