Issues of Road Safety in Russia: The Problems and Means of Their Solving

Accident rate in cities and on the roads of Russia is one of the serious social and economic problems. Around one million of road accidents took place for the period from 1995 to 2002, resulting in over one million and two hundred thousand dead and injured. Approximately 30 thousand people are killed on the road in Russia annually, over 170 thousand people get injured, and of these, more than ten thousand become permanently disabled. There are around 450 road accidents that take place daily on the roads of the country, and in these accidents more than 80 people get killed and some 500 people are injured. Around 60% of those killed represent the most active portion of the population, aged from 16 to 40 years. The Russian Federation Government endorsed in June of 1996 a target program, entitled 'Federal Program of improving safety of road traffic on Russia’s roads for the period of 1996-1998'. The basic objective of the Program was reducing the number of those killed in road accidents by 10-20% (which meant 3.2 to 6.5 thousand lives saved). And, indeed, introducing the Program measures made it possible to attain some positive tendencies for main parameters of accident rate during 1996-1999. The Program activities were prolonged further on, up to 2000. As a result of this reduction in accident rate, more than 18 thousand lives had been saved during compared to the virtual total number of fatal casualties, if the annual accident rate of 1995 would have remained unchanged for the same period of time. And, besides, the degree of severity of accident consequences diminished by 7%. Bearing in mind the fact that Russia stands out against a background of economically developed countries for its level of the road accident traumatism, the number of killed per 10 thousand vehicles approximately three times exceeds similar parameters in other countries. Number of killed per 100 thousand of population is 1.5 to 2 times higher than that in the countries with developed motorization. Currently, a second Program of improving safety of road traffic in Russia has been worked out and it is in the process of being implemented. This Program is intended to cover the period from 2002 to 2010.