Strides of Russia
Legacy of the recent past
The economic and social consequences of the political changes in Russia at the end of the XX century have left a heavy trace in different spheres of a life and, not in the last instance, in a behavior of road users. The road safety management system was practically ruined in the last decade of the XX century. Simultaneously the motor-vehicle fleet of the country began to grow at a galloping rate.
Many positive gains of the Soviet period fell into disuse: a pre-trip medical examination of drivers and traffic engineering services were wound up. The transition of a greater part of a vehicle fleet into private hands, the absence of a properly organized monitoring system accompanied by an unrestrained greed for easy money led to the situation when the transport vehicles were operated with malfunctions and obsolete models were widely used.
At the beginning of the XXI century Russia set up a sad record - the number of traffic rules violations exceeded the total number of vehicles by 50 %. The main reasons of almost 70 % of road crashes with severe consequences were excessive speeding, coming out on a lane of opposite direction and drunk driving. From 1996 to 2005 nearly 315 thousand people were killed and about 2 million were injured.
Every third traffic victim in Europe died on Russian roads. At that time our country had one of the highest rate of traffic deaths per 100000 population. In 2001 30916 people were lost in road accidents and 187790 were injured, in 2002 - 33243 and 215678, accordingly. And 34500 people were killed in more than 208 thousand road crashes in 2004.
All in all, Russia lost over 30 thousand people and 280 thousand got injuries annually. And what’s more the majority of victims belonged to the most active and able-bodied part of the population. Road traffic injuries were set to be the cause of death for children and youth aged between 15 and 29. It undermined the demographic capacity of the country.
The majority of road accidents are connected with the deliberate non-observance of traffic rules. Here is an incomplete list of violations common not only for drivers but for pedestrians as well: excessive speeding, order of priority violation, coming out on a lane of opposite direction, absence of driving license, breaking of safe distance, ignoring pedestrian crossings, drunk driving, vehicle reform violation, defying traffic lights and traffic-controllers signals.
It was marked everywhere that the condition of road infrastructure was deteriorating and did not meet the technical requirements and a growing number of automobiles. The congestion of the main highways surpassed their projected traffic capacity in two-three times. These circumstances were the cause of every fifth road accident.
Russia on the way to the road safety problem solution
At the beginning of the XXI century the situation on Russian roads was considered as critical. The country leaders were urged to address the magnitude of the problem and introduce effective road safety strategies and programs.
The problem of road safety and protection of human life and health was considered at the session of the Presidium of the State Council of the Russian Federation in November 2005. It was also noted twice by the President of the Russian Federation in his address to the Federal Assembly. To tackle the problem Mr. Vladimir Putin demanded to review the national policy and to strengthen joint efforts of all stakeholders including governmental organizations and civil society institutions. Elimination of the major road risk factors became one of the national policy priorities.
The endorsement of a national road safety strategy and a plan of action was the key moment in reversing the situation.
It was decided to ensure the following strategic and coordinated action for road safety:
- Increased interaction between governmental organizations of all levels, public institutes, mass media and citizens;
- The national legislation update for creation of an integrated road safety management system;
- Governmental and public institutions commitment to prevent poor observance of traffic safety legislation by the drivers and pedestrians;
- Introduction of modern technologies;
- Implementation of preventive measures.
The adoption of the "Road Safety Improvement in 2006-2012" Federal Program and the corresponding regional and local programs had significantly increased related activities. The goal of the Program is to reduce by 2012 the road-casualty level by 50% in comparison to 2004.
A road user, a vehicle and the road structure are designated as the priorities to road safety.
Legislation improvement
160 normative deeds of different validity have been adopted at the national level since 2006, including 20 Federal Laws, 8 Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, 50 Orders of the Federal Government and more than 90 departmental and interdepartmental statutory acts accepted within the limits of their competence.
Under the initiative of the Ministry of Interior a number of amendments were brought in the Code for Administrative Offences in order to increase compliance to traffic regulations, to enhance penalty procedures and personal responsibility for gross violations, to eliminate contradictions, gaps and duplications of rules.
In particular, the amendments were made to raise the responsibility for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and refusal to pass a medical examination. Besides a responsibility for cell phone use while driving was established as well as for the violation of large-size/heavy cargo transportation regulations.
The Administrative regulation of the Ministry of Interior of Russian Federation was put into operation in November 2008 to optimize routine law-enforcement activities on vehicle and trailer registration, to facilitate procedures of a vehicle registration, issuing of the corresponding documents and license plates for motorists and protect them from corruption hankering.
The Administrative regulation defining the order of actions of law-enforcement personnel on supervision of vehicle registration was introduced in September, 2009.
Consequent measures are undertaken to update the related legislative issues and to increase a safety awareness of the citizens as road users. The training programs of young drivers are also improved considerably.
The Ministry developed a new technique of carrying out examinations for driving license reception. It will be introduced in 2011. The basic innovation consists that theoretical and the first phase of practical examination will be passed in an automated mode. Practical examination will be conducted on a simulator and the process will be controlled by special indicators of audio and video monitoring with data transferring to the dispatcher console.
Test results will be stored in an electronic database. The new procedure will allow to raise objectivity of the results and to exclude any inclinations of corruption or human error.
Technical equipment of traffic police
Issues of technical equipment for road safety units, social security of personnel and employees, improvements of their health services and pecuniary support in regards to the specific work conditions are included in a special program.
Automated complexes of vehicle identification by state registration signs and small-sized speed control equipment have been in use from 2005.
A brand-new speed/range measurement and vehicle identification laser device was developed. Digital data and video signals are transferred via radio-channel to a stationary post or a traffic police car at ranges up to 1.5 km. This makes it more flexible for road safety units to control traffic environment.
Other means of video monitoring allow an automatic identification of a certain model of a vehicle in a dense traffic stream. By using portable visual control devices concealed explosives or other prohibited items can be spotted.
Road Infrastructure
In some regions resources allocated for local road safety programs are being reduced. The budget funds of regional road safety programs in 22 regions of the Russian Federation were decreased almost by 900 million roubles.
The normative and technical support of city road network performance does not correspond to safety standards.
Up till now the distribution of control and supervising duties between authorities responsible for road safety is far from being perfect.
A question of obligatory land allocation for vehicle parking lots became imminent now.
Emergency care service
The posts of first medical aid are being installed now along the main highways within one-hour accessibility. And the emergency care helicopter pads for are being set up.
Informative support
An integrated information system of the Ministry of Interior of the Russian Federation formed a unique informative space and provided access of all traffic police units to different specialized federal and regional databases.
Development of information and telecommunication technologies promoted a creation of a basic informative and analytical system. It provides information about road crashes, the quantity of vehicles on the roads, stolen cars etc. Now the information on drive-away vehicles becomes instantly accessible to all subunits of the Ministry of Interior. It requires from 20 to 60 seconds to process an inquiry.
Personnel training
Introduction of new technologies is impossible without serious changes in professional skills of the employees. With this purpose the Oryol institute of legal sciences of the Ministry of Interior of the Russian Federation was given a status of a scientific and educational centre for training of specialists in road safety.
Traffic police personnel must remember that they should be an example of exemplary behavior on roads when demanding law observance from the citizens, be perfect in traffic rules knowledge, be capable to provide first aid to the suffering people.
Propagation
It is estimated that more than 80 % of all road accidents occur due to driver faults. Development of legal consciousness among citizens was outlined as one of top priorities. Mass media plays a special role in this process. Various public awareness campaigns, conferences and forums are of great importance to promote public consciousness on road safety issues.
Results
The example of Russia confirms efficiency of a targeted approach to road safety problem. During the first years of an execution of the Federal program on Road Safety Improvement there was an essential slowdown in road fatalities growth despite the increase of a vehicle fleet.
At first a trend of a road casualties decrease came along with a road crashes growth: in 2006 the number of registered road accidents increased by 5798 and the number of road victims reduced by 1233, in comparison to 2005. In 2008 there was a turning-point in the situation: the number of road accidents decreased by 15500, of people injured – by 21300, of road victims – by 3372. Last year the quantity of children and teenagers injured on roads was less also.
This year the trend of road accidents decrease keeps up. For 10 months (from January to October, 2009) 167 989 (-6,6 %) road crashes have occurred, 21 367 (-12,5 %) people were lost and 212 541 (-4,9 %) people were injured.
The road safety problem is given scrupulous attention at the highest governmental level. In 2009 under the decision of the President of the Russian Federation Mr. Dmitry Medvedev one of the State Council sessions was devoted to road safety issues. The Ministries of Education and Sciences, of Health and Social Development, of Justice, of Interior were commissioned to develop comprehensive measures to address the problem. We hope that the experience of the world community presented at the First global ministerial conference on road safety of traffic will give a new thrust to international collaborative efforts in overcoming the global road safety crisis.