During the past ten years, 10 thousand people died in road accidents in Kyrgyzstan. This is a population of an average village. Despite the measures taken by the state, the horrifying statistics are not improving.
“A terrible road accident in Alay. The number of victims increased to four”, “Car crashed, 7 people died”, “In Issyk-Kul, a mother and two daughters died in an accident”, “Four people died in an accident in Nookat. A fifteen-year-old teenager was driving”. These are just a few examples of the Kyrgyz media headlines about road accidents during this summer.
This is a photo of Aida Umetalieva, 33, and her daughters. They were in a car parked at the side of the road. The driver, Aida’s husband, went out to check the irrigation of his field. A Mercedes-Benz car drove at high speed and crashed into a parked car. A driver and his passenger, an employee of the Regional Department of Internal Affairs, were drunk.
The woman and the girls died on the spot. The woman’s son was also there, he survived.
This tragic accident occurred in Issyk-Kul region on June 12. While the relatives grieved over the death of Aida and her daughters, the court released the suspect under house arrest. Now, the relatives are worried that he will not receive a just punishment.
Chinara Kasmambetova, Director of the “Road Safety” NGO, understands the concern of people who have lost their loved ones. According to her, over the years, a ‘culture’ of resolving the problem at the accident scene has developed: it is the calls, bribes, avoidance of responsibility, and assistance from friends and relatives.
“Many people easily avoid responsibility for their violations and do not feel guilty. If we also consider the irresponsibility of the law enforcement agencies, investigators, and court officials, we should not expect a change in the situation with road accidents in the near future,” the expert believes.
During the summer, 93 people died in car accidents. The statistics are horrifying, but, unfortunately, stable for Kyrgyzstan – an average of two people die in road accidents every day.
“The deaths of more than 10,000 people in 10 years can be compared with the extinction of a population of an average village in a republic. However, this happened during a time of peace. These figures show the deaths of many young people, men and women, old people and children,” this is how the experts describe the situation with road accidents in Kyrgyzstan.
According to the Centre for Medical and Social Expertise, during the past three years, 1,131 people received disabilities from road traffic accidents. Of these, 63 are children. Thus, about 350-400 people lose their ability to work each year. These figures represent the lost lives, the lost potential of the country, and huge economic damage to the budget of the republic. The economic damage from road accidents in the country this year is 12 billion 761 million soms ($150.66 million) or 3.64% of GDP, according to the research by the National Institute for Strategic Studies.
According to one of the research authors, Doctor of Technical Sciences Zhyrgalbek Sharshembiev, there is nothing more precious than human life and health.
“For instance, a 35-year-old man who died in an accident would have worked for another 20 years; his contribution to the economy would have amounted to millions. The state must pay benefits to citizens who lost their ability to work. The deaths or injuries of people are the most significant part of the damage from road accidents. In addition, it is necessary to repair the cars or road objects,” Sharshembiev said in CABAR.asia interview.
During the past ten years, 68 thousand road accidents were registered in the country. The largest number of the accidents occurred in 2013. After that, there was a decline in numbers, but there are no significant changes in statistics.
According to the World Health Organisation, Kyrgyzstan is 92nd out of 175 countries in the ranking of countries by mortality in road accidents. The situation in other Central Asian countries is also not good.
Drivers Cause More Than 80% of Road Accidents
For 6 months of this year, the drivers caused almost 2.9 thousand road accidents. This is 84% of the total number of registered accidents. The most common causes are speeding, violation of driving regulations, and entering an oncoming lane.
This can be explained by the poor training in driving schools and corruption in the issuance of driver’s licenses. According to the member of the Parliament Marlen Mamataliev, a driver’s license can be bought for 5-10 thousand soms ($59-118) without training.
“The category 1 driver’s license can be bought for 5 thousand soms; the price of the category 2 driver’s license is 10 thousand. People say such licenses are officially registered with the State Registration Service, and there are no problems with them. 50% of the amount is paid in advance, the other 50% - after receiving the document. The registration in state bodies cannot be obtained so easily - it means there is corruption,” said the member of the Parliament at a meeting of the parliamentary commission on the Safe City project.
235 driving schools work in Kyrgyzstan. According to the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Ulukbek Maripov, they were last inspected three years ago. He proposed to revise the system and criteria by which the driving schools are inspected.
“The driving schools that do not meet the established criteria should be deprived of their licenses and blacklisted,” Ulukbek Maripov said.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs has its own opinion regarding driving schools. Deputy Interior Minister Oktyabr Urmanbetov recently announced their position during the meeting of the parliamentary commission on the Safe City project.
“The driving schools are subordinate to the Ministry of Education. 119 out of 235 schools received warnings. The penalties were applied to 14, another 13 were temporarily closed. This shows that driving schools do not comply with the requirements. We need to reduce the number of schools and open 3 or 4 state driving schools in each region. It will make it easier to control them,” explained Urmanbetov.
There Are Many Vehicles, but Not Enough Money for Road Infrastructure
The process of automobilisation is intensive in the country. At the end of 2020, almost 1.5 million vehicles were registered.
“This factor significantly affects the condition of both local and national highways. Some road sections are completely damaged. Due to the lack of financial resources, only the pothole patching is carried out on the sections requiring complete reconstruction. This causes certain risks for all road users,” Gulmira Abdralieva, Minister of Transport and Communications, said at the government meeting.
Almost every second road accident occurs on the national highways. 123 damaged road sections are not repaired there yet. In addition, it is required to install traffic barriers on busy highways. The problem is the lack of finance. There was always not enough money, but due to the pandemic, the Ministry of Transport’s budget was also cut. The international donors are ready to assist, but the relevant authorities must audit the roads and prepare a strategy. So far, the responsible authorities do not know how much money is needed to repair the damaged sections and when the strategy will be prepared.
“In 2018, an interdepartmental working group began developing a national short-term strategy to improve road safety in the Kyrgyz Republic. It was necessary to finalise some points, but due to the pandemic, everything was suspended. Only recently, the Ministry of Internal Affairs resumed the development of the strategy,” says Kanatbek Beisheev, a lawyer at the Road Department of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
Road Safety: Many Responsible, No Coordination
In CABAR.asia interview, the Director of the “Road Safety” NGO Chinara Kasmambetova noted that, first, it is necessary to regulate road safety management.
“Which authority is controlling the management and coordination of road safety issues? This is a complex issue involving many Ministries. It is necessary to create a permanent body that will coordinate and manage all other structures. Before the latest changes, there was a Commission for Road Safety under the Government, but it does not work to the full extent. It is necessary to create a permanent body under it – Secretariat – which will coordinate all the work,” the expert explains.
According to her, it is also necessary to create conditions under which the violators would not avoid responsibility. To accomplish this, it is necessary to increase digitalization and automatization of the cases’ solutions, and to revise road safety legislation, including bringing to justice those government officials, who allow violators to avoid responsibility.
The “Road Safety” NGO was established in 2012. They implement several projects every year. In 2019, the NGO promoted the use of seat belts and child car seats. They also are currently working on promoting speed reduction to 30 km/h near the schools and residential areas. In addition, the organisation continuously implements information and preventive measures among all road users and conducts training for representatives of the responsible authorities.
Measures to Improve Road Safety Still Only on Paper
Against the background of the frequent fatal road accidents this year, on June 14, President Sadyr Japarov ordered to strengthen the measures to prevent road accidents. A month later, he ordered to strengthen raids to identify drunk drivers.
The Main Directorate for Road Traffic Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic reported that, by the order of the President, an interdepartmental working group developed a plan for 2021-2025. However, the Directorate did not specify what this plan is about and what measures it includes.
Previously, they proposed an initiative to toughen the driver’s punishment for committing a road accident, leaving the scene of an accident, intoxicated driving, transferring control of a vehicle to an intoxicated person, or a person who does not have the driver’s license. The bill is still being discussed.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Ulukbek Maripov ordered to speed up the launch of the second stage of the Safe City project. At this stage, the cameras will be installed on the national highways, including the sections of Bishkek-Osh and Bishkek-Cholpon-Ata highways. The majority of road accidents occur on these roads.
Another direction of digital solutions implementation was the launch of an accident monitoring system – 102.kg. The project is implemented with the support of the Soros Foundation-Kyrgyzstan. The authors are confident that open data will allow the subsequent analysis of the situation to improve the citizens’ safety, optimise road traffic and identify damaged road sections. The website allows finding out the cause and description of the accident, as well as the number of accidents by region and city.
The measures taken by the state are fundamental in ensuring road safety, but everyone should feel responsible for it.
“Many countries have their own approaches to solving the problems. The countries achieving good results, as a rule, have a coordinating body, sufficient funding, law-abiding citizens, high culture of behaviour on the roads, road safety education, good driver training, anti-corruption measures on the roads, proper work of the judiciary, and other law enforcement agencies, as well as campaigns and propaganda,” says Chinara Kasmambetova.
Title photo: car.ru
This article was prepared as part of the Amplify, Verify, Engage: Information for Democratisation and Good Governance in Eurasia project implemented by IWPR and funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and mentoring program of the Development of New Media and Digital Journalism in Central Asia project implemented by IWPR with the financial support of the UK Government. The content of the article does not reflect the official position of the IWPR, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the Government of the United Kingdom.