The Government of
Ukraine allocates enormous sums for
construction and repair of roads,
finances work on improving the
safety of roads, including the program
"500-500-1000", and urges
not just to absorb financial
resources but to strengthen traffic
safety. This was announced by
Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr
Groysman during a first meeting of
the Coordinating Council for traffic
safety established in February of
this year.
The Head of
Government cited statistics, according to which, more
than 3.5 thousand people died in
road accidents and almost 35 thousand
were injured. At the same
time, the increase of the
quality of the roadbed leads
to deterioration of the discipline
of drivers and carriers - first of all,
regarding the speed
limit and transportation of the oversized cargo.
"We have
set up a special Coordinating Council for traffic
safety. It’s task is to
shape a government program for improvement
of road traffic
safety. The burning task is
to reduce the number of
road accidents and injuries. We
are allocating UAH 47 billion for road,
introducing new standards, we have
changed the state building standards. The program "500-500-1000" is
being implemented, which contains traffic circles and island sites.
This will be instrumental in reducing negative phenomena. A sum worth UAH 2.6 billion was allocated exclusively
for (issues of) security. This
year, citizens should feel that
the roads became safer", the Prime Minister
claimed.
The attendees discussed
the application of new norms
in the construction
of roads, the use of
world experience, as well as
the issues of patrol police,
including in the context of
the possibility of using automated
means of control of movement.
According to the proposal of the
Head of Government,
additional government decisions on these
issues will be shortly worked
out and will
be approved at one of
the next Government session.
"It is
better to check (and ensure
the road safety), rather than seeing horrible
accidents in Kharkiv and in
other cities, Volodymyr Groysman emphasized, attention was not paid
to the issues
of roads in Ukraine for
years. Just like the traffic
safety issue. We have to
change the situation. We do
not need to spend money,
instead we need to invest
in order to get the
desired effect".
The Prime Minister
also noted that the Government's
approach to traffic safety issues should have international
support.
"At present,
we need to
shortly develop a state program. Next, we will
engage the local authorities in this process,
so they could
shape their regional programs based on our
best practices (traffic safety)", the Head of
Government underscored.
Background
The Cabinet of
Ministers of Ukraine, within the framework of
pursuing of the traffic safety
improvement policy, as well as
in a bid to improve the
quality of road construction, has set up
a Coordinating Council on traffic safety
issues under the chairmanship of the Prime
Minister. The corresponding decision was announced by
Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman in February of
this year.
The Head of
Government also held a special meeting, during which he outlined
the expansion of the country's
logistics capabilities and enhancement of traffic culture
and initiated the process of
implementation of a comprehensive action plan on improvement
of the traffic
safety in Ukraine, which contains plans for the construction
of 500 new traffic circles, 500 island sites and
1000 crosswalks - program
"500-500-1000". The program
is planned for three years
and provides that from now
on design, construction, putting in exploitation of roads should
take into account the safety
demands.