The country in national mourning
Yesterday Ukraine was in national mourning after a train crash tragedy. An accident occurred in the Dnipropetrovsk region, taking the lives of close to 50 people. The circumstances of the traffic accident are currently being investigated. The first assumption was that the driver of the bus “Etalon” ran a red light at the railroad crossing, rushed on to the rails and was hit by a shunting locomotive of one of local enterprises. At this, local media asserts that the traffic signals were disfunctioning. The accident happened exactly on The Day of the working visit of President Viktor Yanukovych to the Dnipropetrovsk region were the accident occured. The head of the state conveyed his deep condolences to the relatives of the victims. He ordered the government to set up a committee to deal with the consequences of the accident and assist the victims and their families. Andrii Kliuiev, the deputy prime minister who came to the Dnipropetrovsk region together with the president, headed the committee.
Moreover, the Minister for Extraordinary Situations Mykhailo Bolotskykh and the Minister of Transportation Kostiantyn Yefymenko came to the accident site from the capital.
The head of the government promised to allot 100,000 hryvnias for the families of the victims. President Viktor Yanukovych ordered his subordinates to conduct a thorough investigation of the circumstances in which the accident took place. Before his speech at the meeting in the Dnipropetrovsk regional state administration, he stated that Wednesday, October 13, would be a mourning day in Ukraine. “I believe we should draw conclusions from this tragedy, and we will,” stated Yanukovych.
These conclusions should have been drawn long ago. Ukraine takes a leading place among European countries in traffic accidents. “In terms of traffic accident-related deaths Ukraine takes the fourth place in Europe. Ukraine is also a leader in the amount of pedestrians killed,” said last year Kathleen Elsig, the regional manager of the Global Road Safety Partnership in Europe and Central Asia. However, she referred to data from 2008. After the considerable increase in fines for traffic violations, traffic accidents substantially decreased, the State Motor Vehicle Inspectorate states.
Nevertheless, the statistics continue to shock. According to the press service of the State Motor Vehicle Inspectorate Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, in the nine months of this year 3,080 people died in traffic accidents (for comparison, in the same period of last year this figure was 3,798 people). Only on October 11 in Ukraine 593 traffic accidents took place, in which 16 people died and 129 were injured. The press service of the State Motor Vehicle Inspectorate Department pointed out that the main cause of traffic accidents is not observing a safe distance between vehicles, exceeding the allowed speed, violations of traffic rules (often driving on the opposite lane), and violations of the rules for crossing railway crossings.
However, Andrii Khorolsky, the vice president of the Kyiv Automobile Club, believes that the poor culture of behavior on roads is the cause for the majority of traffic accidents in Ukraine:
“Behavior on roads is directly dependent on the general culture of a person,” Khorolsky asserts. “If on the roads of European countries a driver turns on a ‘turning’ sign, other participants of traffic understand they should help this driver pass an obstacle. Our drivers have only one principle: I’m driving, so I’m the boss. Most people act this way.
“There is a growing number of accidents with city buses and private regular buses. What is the reason for that?
“You know very well how many people today look for a job. For some salary city bus drivers are ready to work around the clock, trying to make as many trips as possible. They are not controlled by anyone, so you can imagine the quality of their driving. People are left to the mercy of fate. I think many people have personally experienced this.”
It is notable that the disorder on Ukrainian roads very much resembles the overall situation in the country. Someone feels like a “god” behind the wheel, some have to adapt to these “gods,” others for some money risk lives — their own and those of others. All this mess is convenient for those who must fight it, since the ubi-quitous corruption damaged not only asphalt on our roads, but also the remnants of morality of drivers, employees of the road department, and the police. Sometimes the situation is absurd, like when it is easier to put up signs saying “pothole” in the entire country than repair those ill-fated potholes. The post-Soviet culture of existence not only harms us, it causes real victims. However, to overcome this situation, one should make efforts, but there is a constant lack of will-power — both, political and social.
