It is written: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain! Whether religious or not, we often do just that. For example, when we see the statistics about the victims of the Bulgarian “war on the road”. The war on the road is actually a World War. But this should not sound as an excuse, because in this country the phenomenon takes truly frightening dimensions and reminds of a civil war. A bit far-fetched? Not really.

These days Bulgaria was shocked by an incident in which one of two idiots racing on a straight stretch of the road killed two 16-year-old teenagers. God forbid! Two children were killed and while we were trying to comprehend what was happening, more news of the kind reached us. What was the difference when an elderly woman was killed that same day by a reversing car. The difference is just the age of the victim. And the reason this time was not an illegal race. It is also not a race when reckless driver hits the people waiting on a bus stop. There are at least three such cases in Bulgaria each year. Now we hear that the Ministry of Interior is discussing the idea of criminalizing organising illegal street races. The news came from the chief of traffic police Boyko Ranovski. The possibility for sanctioning those betting on illegal races was also being discussed and thought over. Why is so much thinking needed over something so simple?

But speaking about the case in the village of Lesidren, in which two children died, it was reported that there were no signals in the police about illegal street races taking place. Subsequent interviews and coverage of the case in media, however, showed that everyone in that village knows that such races are routine and that the participants in this case race regularly. Probably the police know these things too. But traffic policemen do not know when and where a race will take place.

The Traffic Police also reported that in the last few months a great number of serious violations on the road were registered. This is due to reentry into service of all police cameras, including mobile ones. The effect of increased control, however, is expected to be seen in a couple of months when the police would have managed all collected data about violators. Until then, God preserve us!