The Bulgarian road system is grossly underdeveloped. There are few motorways or dual carriageways. Many roads are in a poor state of repair. On mountain roads there are rock slides and landslides. Livestock and horse-drawn carts present road hazards throughout the country, especially during the agricultural season. Travel conditions deteriorate during the winter as roads become icy and potholes increase. Night driving is generally not advised because most roads do not have any form of lighting. Most roads lack pavements.
Yet the biggest hazard is from Bulgarian motorists, who drive in old sub-standard vehicles with no form of indication, dim or missing headlights and a death wish that would make any kamikaze bomber proud. In all other parts of life, Bulgarians are patient, laid-back people. Years of communist bureaucracy has taught them to expect to wait for things to happen, yet they appear to vent all of their pent-up anger, impatience and frustration on the road. It’s as if driving instructors teach Bulgarians not to stop for pedestrian crossings, to overtake on the brow of a hill or on a blind corner into the path of an oncoming lorries or to force their way in to a gap that is too small to park in.
The road to Balchik
I have fond memories of a drive I made to the coastal town of Balchik with my friend Georgi. It was the first drive I ever made with a Bulgarian who was not a taxi driver. This ride is forever etched in my mind because it revealed a hidden side to this quiet, peaceful man.
Georgi is patient and easy-going with a fatalistic “nothing is worth stressing over” attitude to life. We boarded his 35-year-old Lada and he revved up the engine, a thick cloud of noxious, black smoke puffed out of the exhaust and then we were off, speeding down our dirt track road only to come to a screeching halt at the end of the street to give way to a herd of sheep and goats.
Georgi banged on his hooter, started cursing and waving his hands in the air. After the herd passed by, he cursed some more then hurtled off criss-crossing the road to avoid the mass of crater-like potholes. At the T junction at the bottom of our village, he pulled straight out without indicating, waiting or, I fear, even looking.
Clutching the edge of my seat I was literally counting down the kilometres to Balchik. On the brow of the hill outside Obrochishte, he pulled out attempting to overtake a slow-moving truck. There was no way he could see the oncoming traffic and, let’s be realistic here, a Lada doesn’t really have the power to overtake a tortoise and certainly not when it’s going up hill. As luck would have it, we pulled in just in time before being wiped into oblivion by a red Audi.
No sooner had I started to relax a little (we were driving on a straight piece of road now), than his mobile phone rang. He answered it then proceeded to chat with his girlfriend. We slowed to a snails pace and he started wandering about the road; I was sure he was going to end up on the narrow, gravel, hard shoulder. Other motorists beeped and overtook, leaving Georgi gesticulating and continuing his mobile conversation with no hands on the wheel.
Driving into Balchik’s environs, we started the pothole dance again; the potholes of Balchik should be listed as national monuments.
Some have sticks with little white plastic cups on. Last December, there was a massive pothole here with a Christmas tree planted in it. It is hard doing the pothole waltz, because not only do you have to look for the craters, but also because you have to avoid vehicles coming straight at you because they are overtaking everything coming the other way. The tyres screech again and Georgi grins at me as we nearly go into the back of a donkey and cart on the bend.
Closer to the town, a suicidal policeman steps out armed with his lollipop stick. Georgi swears some more, then gets out his documentation in a sullen scowling manner. The policeman has a threatening kind of “don’t mess with me son, I’m the law”, attitude.
He walks ‘round the car looking for the slightest flaw; finding none, he gives back the documentation, then makes a slight waving gestures, which would be missed if you blinked. In the town centre a crazed dogs runs in front of the wheels narrowly escaping death, a woman attempts to cross the road, but Georgi refuses to stop and misses her by inches. Finally he spots a parking place big enough for a child’s bicycle. With some deft manoeuvring and a game of bumper cars, he squeezes the Lada in. This is driving in Bulgaria and believe it or not, you get used to it!
Numbers to ponder
The number of serious accidents and the death toll over the past few years in Bulgaria has remained high. There are more than a thousand fatalities a year through road traffic accidents and in the region of 6000 serious accidents. In the first two months of 2007, the Interior Ministry reported more than 140 people deaths in the “war on the roads”.
Book of the law
Contrary to popular opinion, traffic laws do exist and have recently been updated in an effort to curb fatalities. The use of seat belts is mandatory in Bulgaria, except for taxi drivers. Child car seats are required by law, but only on the back seats, yet many people turn up to my kids’ local kindergarten without crash helmets on the back of their father‘s motorbikes, or else they wave from the back window clearly unbelted. Some ride to school on the family horse and cart where car seats and seatbelts are impossible.
Speed limits are 50 km/h in the cities/towns, 90 km/h out of town and 120 km/h on the highways. The same speed limits apply for motorcycles; ironically, motorcyclists must drive with helmets and with lights on at all times, but on a recent trip to Obzor I counted five people riding without helmets and wearing just shorts and t-shirts.
At unmarked crossings, the driver on the right has the right-of-way, but this rule is frequently ignored, with drivers cutting out whenever their fancy takes them.
Drivers may be charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, yet everyone seems to do it. In my village, people drive to the local restaurant or a neighbour’s house, drink a skinful of rakiya and then drive home – admittedly only a short distance but dangerous nonetheless.
Recently, world ice-dancing champion Maxim Staviski allegedly killed a 24-year-old man, reportedly while driving under the influence of alcohol. Paradoxically, Maxim, together with his life and sport partner Albena, are among the faces of the drink driving campaign “If you’re drunk – get out of the car, I want to get there alive”.
The new edition
A new set of tougher sanctions for exceeding speed limits came into effect in Bulgaria on June 30. Parliament vowed to crack down on speeding drivers and increase fines to improve road safety. Drivers who violate the 50 km/h speed restrictions in built-up areas will now be fined 350 leva and will lose their driving licence for three months. Drivers who are caught with a blood alcohol level exceeding 0.5 will receive a 500 leva fine and they will be banned from driving for a year. If the driver fails to pay the fine within a month, a new fine of 50 leva will be added.
Regional Development Minister Assen Gagaouzov said that money levied from road fines will be used to restore between 2500 and 3000 kilometres of roads. Along with EU grants, Bulgaria will spend 500 million euro on repairs to its road network in 2008, double the amount allocated for this year. Interior Minister Roumen Petkov and members of the Union of the Bulgarian Automobiles declared recently at a campaign for Safer Roads that, in addition to the new traffic measures, classes on road safety must be introduced in all Bulgarian schools as soon as possible in order to prevent children from having accidents.
Elsewhere
In fairness, Bulgarians are not the only dangerous drivers in Europe. A recent news report in the UK’s Daily Mail reported that immigrants from Eastern Europe are now responsible for nearly 15 per cent of fatal crashes on rural roads in the UK. “The majority of Eastern Europeans involved are 16- to 24-year-olds, who tend to be production workers and speak little English. These are people who need cars to get from A to B on our rural road network, where there are not many buses,” John Fort, executive member for community safety in North Yorkshire, told the Daily Mail. According to him, the Eastern European drivers tend to pile a lot of people into one car, drive too fast, go round roundabouts the wrong way and often indulge in drink-driving.
On home territory
The sudden influx of Romanian drivers who flock to Bulgaria’s beach resorts now that visas are no longer necessary has added to the problems on our roads. Romanians undertake and overtake at the same time then speed along, suddenly braking for no reason.
Most visitors to Bulgaria are surprised at the number of traffic police (KAT) on the roads, however, the National Assembly argued that there simply weren’t enough KAT officers to cope with the road safety issue and under new amendments to the Traffic Act, all police officers may stop drivers. An increased police presence may reduce drink driving and offences concerning general vehicle safety, but I am sceptical as to how it will solve reckless driving and speeding given that most Bulgarian drivers flash their headlights to warn of forthcoming police checks and speed up immediately after passing them.
Corruption still exists in the police force, although to a lesser extent since police officers faced disciplinary action when caught accepting bribes. When the Bulgarian traffic police used to issue on-the-spot fines, much of the money went straight into their back pockets. Drivers with foreign plates were frequently stopped and charged for traffic offences they believed they had not committed, when aggressive drivers new BMWs, Mercedes and Audis sped by unchecked because they were often armed organised crime figures.
In the meantime, while we wait for a better road infrastructure and for police action to reduce the volume of accidents, we should endeavour to hang on to our safe, defensive driving code – use of all mirrors, clear indication at all times and a genuine MOT certificate. Don’t add to Bulgaria’s RTA statistics – no one deserves an early grave at the side of some deserted road.
