Traffic experts appeal for the salvation of all citizens in BiH

(Patria) - The Association of Traffic and Communications Engineers of BiH (UISK BiH) has sent an open letter for the salvation of the lives of all citizens in BiH in the context of road traffic safety.  

The association has 600 members who work in all fields of traffic and communications. Engineers of this profession, through the organization of 10 scientific-professional gatherings and warning letters about various phenomena in BiH society, have reacted on several occasions and sent various materials to all institutions of BiH and its entities, with the intention of expert elaboration for the improvement of traffic, transport, and communications in BiH.

"We are addressing the BiH public regarding road traffic safety in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the aim of expressing our dissatisfaction with the attitude towards this problem. The state of road traffic safety in BiH is catastrophic, as evidenced by indicators of around 300 deaths annually on BiH roads, while traffic accidents cost our society over 550 million euros annually. BiH citizens count traffic victims day by day, our fellow citizens, friends, family members, we wait and hope for some more significant activities that will save us from this evident major problem. In that hope and waiting, we believe that this problem of road traffic safety in BiH must be solved systematically at the highest, i.e., state level, in cooperation and coordination with the entities and lower structures of the state of BiH, and in no case the other way around.

In the letter, they ask the authorities why BiH still does not have a BiH Road Traffic Safety Council (a legal obligation under the Law on the Fundamentals of Road Traffic Safety in BiH, Article 251, from 2007), a BiH Road Traffic Safety Strategy (a legal obligation under the Law on the Fundamentals of Road Traffic Safety in BiH, Article 251a, from 2007), an Action Plan for the Implementation of the BiH Road Traffic Safety Strategy with defined goals, responsible parties, their obligations and responsibilities, measures, and timelines for improving road traffic safety in BiH (a legal obligation under the Law on the Fundamentals of Road Traffic Safety in BiH, Article 251a, from 2007), the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2010-2020, which was an obligation for all UN member states to implement, and only Bosnia and Herzegovina has not implemented anything from its obligations as a UN member.

Experts state that BiH does not even have a database of traffic accidents, and it is the only country in Europe and beyond that does not have data on traffic accidents, which is a prerequisite for analyzing the causes of traffic accidents. They remind that BiH has received money twice from international institutions, but the database has not worked due to the poor performance of the database authors and the division into entities, cantons, etc.

We have been waiting for 12 years for the formation of the fundamental basis of the institutional and administrative framework (Council, Strategy, Action Plan, Accident Databases, UN Decade, EU Strategies), which are prerequisites for systematic management of road traffic safety in BiH.

"We wonder how much longer we have to wait for the process of systematic management and more serious action on the issue of road traffic safety in BiH to even begin. And while we are still waiting for the moves of those in charge, we continue to count the victims, whom we unfortunately only deal with through statistics and daily reporting of events through the media, and unfortunately, fatalities are no longer news, but rather material goods are news, not human life. We hope that the conscience and moral responsibility of those in charge will finally kick in, because 300 deaths annually is not just a statistical figure. Each of these people has a name and surname, family and friends. Unfortunately, in that black statistic, tomorrow it could be our name or the name of our loved ones. We implore you, we warn you, the Council of Ministers (Ministry of Transport and Communications of BiH), that you are morally and legally responsible to do much more and not only to initiate but also to complete processes in the field of traffic safety, because by doing so you value life, which is the obligation of all of us, wherever we are and whatever our name is," the letter states.