Traffic Safety Strategy Adopted for Sarajevo Canton: Reduce Fatalities by 50% by 2020

Deputies in the Assembly of Sarajevo Canton at yesterday's session adopted the Proposal for the Road Traffic Safety Strategy for the canton area for the period from 2016 to 2020, which was accepted by the Government in the same form in mid-November. With the action plans that follow in its implementation, deficiencies in road safety should be addressed, Patria reports.

The cantonal Minister of Transport, Mujo Fišo, reminded that the UN requires member states to reduce the number of fatalities by 50 percent by 2020. He believes this can be achieved provided that Bosnia and Herzegovina, in all its segments, creates and implements strategies and action plans based on the five pillars from the recommendations of the UN Decade of Action.

The UN proposes: traffic safety management, safer roads and mobility, ensuring safer vehicles, greater safety for road users, and post-crash care.

The Proposal for the Road Traffic Safety Strategy for the Sarajevo Canton area was prepared by the Faculty of Transport and Communications in Sarajevo in mid-this year. Alarming data on the number of traffic accidents is cited, and if safety in traffic is not increased in the coming period, a black scenario threatens us.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, around 36,000 traffic accidents occur annually, in which 360 people die, and about 10,000 are injured. The mortality rate in BiH is 10.3 per 100,000 inhabitants, which is about three times higher than in Western European countries. The main causes of accidents are inappropriate speed, non-compliance with traffic regulations, and alcohol intoxication.

In 2015, 952,595 cars/vehicles were registered in Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which 801,387 were passenger cars.

As stated, the road network in Bosnia and Herzegovina is considered poorly developed in Europe. The main objections are insufficient road width, steep gradients, sharp curve radii, and massive construction of buildings in the protective road belt.

Also, certain sections of main roads are overloaded, there is a constant increase in the number of cars, which is not adequately followed by improvement and expansion of road infrastructure, contributing to the poor state of road traffic safety in BiH. This results in a large number of traffic accidents.

According to forecasts, by 2020, there would be nearly 40,000 traffic accidents in BiH, or about 400 fatalities, if these recommendations are not implemented.

Investment and allocation for traffic safety should be seen as an investment, not a cost, the strategy states.

The set goal is for Bosnia and Herzegovina to reduce the number of road fatalities as well as the number of traffic accidents, so that by 2020 it joins the group of European countries that care about casualties in traffic and fulfills the obligations of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety.