For the first time in four years, traffic accident data paint a dire picture – the number of road deaths in Bulgaria has soared, most of the casualties being aged 16 to 30. Last year 655 people lost their lives in road accidents; in 2013 their number was 510 and in 2012 – 599. Thousands have been injured. Vlady, Nicky and Tsveti, all three university students, are among the casualties. The terrible traffic accident they were involved in was caused by a 30-year old driver without a drivers’ licence, with no primary education, with 90 cases pending in court and with 12 convictions.

Vlady and Nicky were killed on impact, Ivan was injured and, happily, survived. Tsveti fought for her life for 82 days in the intensive care ward of the hospital in Pleven. The hospital caters for 1,400,000 people – from central and Northern Bulgaria as well as for the traffic between Romania, Sofia and Greece.

A year ago, Vlady, Nicky and Tsveti’s friends organized a fund-raising campaign on Facebook. Tsveti’s mother Valya Taslakova found the strength to tell us about the campaign:

“People started to send money and in just two months we had raised over 13,000 leva donated by people, by children, by organizations, money we had ourselves given… And so we equipped the intensive care unit. The beds there were not adapted for X-rays so we purchased new beds that were – Pirogov emergency hospital was the only one that had beds like that - as well as vital signs monitors and other specialized equipment. The doctors told us that from 4 in 10 the death rate had now dropped to 2 in 10, thanks to this equipment that is now in use. But all this was made possible thanks to the people who extended us a helping hand. It was a battle with the consequences.”

Like Valya Taslakova, Vlady’s mother Galya Goranova is also a lawyer. Together with her colleagues from the district court, Pleven she is working on legislative amendments to the traffic accident section of the Penal Code. Unfortunately, when the Oresharski cabinet resigned, that delayed the approval of the draft which has now been re-submitted and is yet to be voted. The two mothers created an association called Justice to help young road accident casualties. Some of the money comes from the association. Valya Taslakova:

“I grow roses so I decided to write a letter to one of the world leaders in rose production with a history going back 200 years, Meilland. I told them about the car accident and also that Tsveti and Vlady had been very much in love. A month later I got a reply that Tsvetelina would have a rose named after her. It is a hybrid tea rose, a deep raspberry colour with clusters of more than 85 petals, and is especially suited to our climes. Thousands of shoots have been sold, we are entitled to sell it over a period of 5 years and one euro from its price goes to charity, to help people injured in road accidents.”

An official ceremony to name the rose took place in Pleven on 13 June. It was the first time a leading company names a rose variety after a Bulgarian, unfortunately posthumously. The ceremony was attended by Tsetska Tsacheva, President of the National Assembly, by the town’s mayor and by people from all over the country who came here touched by the tragedy.

The ceremony was attended also Mr. Guy Devillard, CEO of Meilland, France:

“We came to Bulgaria because one of our roses had been selected to be named Cvetelina Romantica in memory of these young people who so tragically lost their lives in a car crash. It was an honour for us to give this variety of rose a name and I hope that this gesture will somehow help alleviate the grief of the parents. Let this rose be a symbol of the fight against road accidents. Creating more interesting and beautiful varieties of roses is our passion and we are proud that our rose is serving such a noble cause. And this motivates us to work even harder.”

On 15 June the District court, Lovech gave the driver Huriet Syuleimanov the maximum prison sentence – 15 years. But he left Bulgaria long ago…

English version: Milena Daynova

Photos: BGNES and Blagorodna Georgieva