Traffic violations increase in Georgia
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, September 8
The Georgian Alliance for safe roads published the results of the research, according to which 76 percent of drivers do not permit pedestrians to cross the roads.
The Alliance made a special presentation, wherein they introduced the research results of the EU project Pedestrians Security Advocacy.
The survey revealed that the majority of drivers and pedestrians violate traffic rules while moving in the streets. Between 52-53 percent of the pedestrians cross the roads with violations and 76 percent of drivers do not give road to the pedestrians at the zebra crossings.
The head of the Alliance for Safe Roads, Eka Laliashvili said that according to the 6 month statistics of 2015, road accidents have doubled in the country, so the organization decided to do a research and interviewed 200 drivers and 306 pedestrians.
“The survey found out and identified three main reasons of increased accidents: infrastructural problems, liberal road law and a low level of awareness of citizens. We are going to carry out a campaign in the future and cooperate with governmental institutions,” she added.
The Deputy Mayor of Tbilisi, Irakli Lekvinadze also attended the presentation of road safety survey and noted that City Hall has been actively cooperating with the organizations working on raising public awareness of road safety.
“We are planning to participate in educational projects in regard to infrastructure development ", he said.
Archil Talakvadze, Deputy interior minister also made comments about the issue.
“By the Minister's order, we are working on a new program of road safety, the result of which will be tightened and improved administration", the deputy interior minister stated.
Georgian Transport and Road Association released a special statement regarding the statistics.
The statement reads that the traffic situation nowadays is alarming and irreversible and the Association addresses the government and the President to take appropriate measures to prevent violations of traffic rules.
The organizations have placed their petition on web-page manifest.ge where any person can join their request.
The petition is signed by eight organizations: Georgian transport and road association, Partnership for Road Safety Fund, Georgian Alliance for Safe Roads, Tbilisi Tram, Iare Pekhit, Georgian Health Promotion and Education Fund, Georgian Automobile Federation.
“We call on the public to follow the traffic rules, in order not to become a victim of a car accident,” the organizations say in the petition.
