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Azerbaijan State Traffic Police Department announces decline in traffic accidents

20 July 2015 [09:30] - TODAY.AZ

By Amina Nazarli - AzerNews 

Road traffic accidents represent a significant threat to human lives in many countries around the world, accounting for devastating 1.24 million lives lost each year.

With urbanization and development in Azerbaijan, come more and more cars on roads, increasing the number of traffic accidents.

In the last six months, a total of 1,045 road accidents were recorded in Azerbaijan, Kamran Aliyev, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry's Central State Traffic Police Department, said on July 15.

As a result, 407 people died and 1,117 were injured. If one were to compare this figure with the previous year, the number off traffic accidents decreased by 171, fatalities by 105, and injuries by 117

The spokesman said that 39 percent of all road accidents are with pedestrians. In 408 such cases, some 143 people died, and 313 were injured.

Roughly 382 traffic accidents caused were caused by traffic rule violations during this period, leading to 144 fatalities, while 490 people suffered injuries

Although the number of traffic accidents has been declining in Azerbaijan, it is still a matter of concern for its capital, Baku, as more cars continue to appear on roads.

Since the beginning of the year, Baku saw 392 road accidents, resulting in the deaths of 118 people with 414 injured, says Vagif Asadov, the head of the Public Relations Department of the Baku city Traffic Police Department.

In comparison with last year, the number of accidents declined by 11.7 percent, while the number of fatalities by 5.1 percent and injured by 5.5 percent, according to Asadov.

Asadov added that most road accidents occurred between 1:00pm and 6:00 pm and from 8:00pm to 12:00pm, often along Heydar Aliyev, Ziya Bunyatov, Nobel, and Gara Garayev avenues and Baku ring road.

Asadov added that in the last six months, 258 drivers were revoked of their driving licenses.

“During this period 11,5823 traffic infractions were reported: 4,229 of them were reported for driving while intoxicated, 5,206 for running a red traffic light, and 329 driving without tags,” he noted.

The traffic problem is one of the most acute in Baku. A plan of measures on resolving the issue was discussed at the Transport Ministry a few years ago.

The plan includes the elimination of crosswalks on multilane roads and construction of overland and underground pedestrian crossings to step up safety and increase traffic intensity.

While more crosswalks, underground and overland pedestrian crossings have been constructed in Baku, pedestrians continue to violate road crossing rules. The culture of proper behavior on the road has to be engrained from childhood.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/society/142309.html

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