Since the beginning of the year, more than 200 people have died in traffic accidents and 1971 people have been injured.

Traffic police presented the statistics during a seminar dedicated to the UN Global Road Safety Week.

More than 34 per cent of the people who died in the accidents were driving, 27.3 per cent were passengers and 38.55 per cent were pedestrians.

The number of killed pedestrians has increased in comparison to figures for the previous year, Bulgarian National Radio reported.

In most cases speeding, the consumption of alcohol and driving without a license led to traffic accidents.

Separate initiatives could not improve the situation, traffic police representative Krasimir Kostov said. Information campaigns and training at an early age were needed to motivate children to protect themselves, Kostov said.

UN statistics show that each day 3000 people die in traffic accidents. The number of people killed in traffic accidents worldwide is 1.2 million.