Crash exit

Fools and roads added to the list of Russia's strategic problems

Casey Marenge, a Kenyan, was wheelchair-bound onto the stage at the World Trade Center in the capital. She was involved in an accident six years ago and was recently asked to speak in Moscow at the First World Conference on Road Safety. Ministers and generals listened to Casey last Thursday. “After the accident, I became disabled, my best friend died,” she said. “My mother works 24 hours a day to pay for my treatment.” During the two days that 70 ministers from different countries responsible for road safety met in Moscow, 7,000 people were killed in road accidents worldwide and another 130,000 were injured.

“I am happy that for the first time such a global conference was held. And I’m very upset that it wasn’t held decades ago,” Anarfi Asamoah-Baa, Deputy Director of the World Health Organization, admitted at the beginning of his speech. From the window of the business center, a 12-meter bottle filled with cars broken in an accident was clearly visible. This is a new monument to Russian scorchers. Here is a mangled "nine" - its drunk driver overturned the car into the river. Killed himself and killed three others. A drunkard driving a "tens" knocked down a man and a woman. They died on the spot. Russia is among the world leaders in the number of deaths on the roads. 30,000 corpses per year.

Violation of the speed limit, drunkenness at the wheel, low driving culture, - President Dmitry Medvedev listed the main causes of accidents at the conference. He, as it turned out, is also not immune from violations of traffic rules. Recently, a motorist from Yekaterinburg complained about the president to the traffic police - he watched the news and noticed that Medvedev got behind the wheel of a Mercedes and did not buckle up. The FSO denied that he had fastened his seat belt, otherwise the car would have started to squeak disgustingly. The story has been turned into a joke.

Medvedev, of course, could have continued the list - for example, to develop the topic of corruption in the traffic police - but did not. Probably because this problem was not close to all foreign participants of the conference. However, the above is already enough for the eyes: for twenty years in Russia, a new generation of drivers has grown up who generally ignore the rules. The traffic police are sure that the situation can be corrected only by repressive measures - increasing fines, depriving them of their rights and more often putting them in a cage for 15 days. “It is precisely the punitive policy that should be supported by the majority of the population,” Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev believes. Basically, it really works. But small. And, according to experts, short-term.

“Three thousand lives saved. The death rate has decreased by 10%, the number of wounded has decreased by 7.3%,” says the interlocutor in the traffic police. Motorists themselves also admit: fines have increased, and reckless drivers have decreased. “There were fewer trips to the oncoming lane, they slowed down, they began to fasten their seat belts,” says Roman Fedorov, administrator of the vashamashina.ru website. There is a result, but this is a temporary phenomenon, says Vyacheslav Lysakov, leader of the Freedom of Choice movement. “Except for repressions, the traffic police cannot offer anything. They raised, for example, fines for talking on the phone, but as they chatted, so they chat,” he says. The traffic police do not argue - it is difficult to change the minds of drivers. According to the deputy head of the traffic police, Vladimir Shvetsov, only half of Russian drivers wear seat belts.

Each traffic light, narrowing of the road or the appearance of a traffic jam provokes them into a battle for seconds and extra meters. Plus, there are suicidal newbies who are literally thrown onto the road every year by driving schools. Last year, 2.8 million Russian citizens received rights. “The newcomer went to the center of the city and got up in quiet horror. I called to be picked up,” says Muscovite Yulia, who gives private driving lessons in her Chevrolet Lanos. “Most novice drivers [in Moscow] buy rights. Then they come and ask to be taught how to drive,” says Alexander Vasiliev, driving instructor. The existing system is beneficial for driving schools, traffic cops, and drivers - everyone is used to the free market, where you can buy rights or pay off their deprivation.

The traffic police claim that 80% of accidents are caused by a person - a driver, a pedestrian or a cyclist. It is clear why there are so many accidents in Russia: morals here are harsh, people are not very polite, it is not customary to give way. Fights between motorists over undivided lanes are common.

But it's not just about the people, it's also about the roads. “Imagine your seven-year-old child walking to school across a six-lane freeway,” Lord George Robertson, former NATO Secretary General, explained at the conference. Moscow is made up of such highways. All large villages and villages in Russia are strung on highways and highways. Medvedev acknowledged that the country does not have a technological regulation on road safety, and ordered that it be adopted by March 1. There is no normal system for the rehabilitation of victims in the country. Rehabilitation centers can be counted on the fingers, and treatment costs a lot of money.

Last summer, 21-year-old Sergei Shurov from Shatura went to a friend's wedding. His friend decided to test a new car on the track and lost control. The car overturned - the driver died, and Sergey ended up in intensive care. He spent 40 days in a coma and three months on artificial respiration. “At first we fought for Sergey's life. Now we are fighting for his health,” says his father, Oleg Shurov. According to him, about two million rubles were spent on treatment. “Nowhere did they take [for treatment] just like that. And they didn’t take it for money either, ”admits Oleg Shurov.

“We know how to reanimate, but not to rehabilitate,” Yulia Bachinskaya is sure. After her husband, the well-known radio and TV presenter Gennady Bachinsky, crashed in January last year, Yulia and her friends created the Fund to Help Victims of Car Crashes. In Germany, she saw an advertisement on a highway - a white cross on a black background and the caption: "If you want to live, slow down." “It works instantly,” Bachinskaya assures. - Penetrates to the liver.

The traffic police also ordered public service advertising, and the agency "Natural" even released several videos on the topic of road safety. The videos turned out to be tough: flat-packed cars, bloody drivers and passengers, orphans. But the central TV channels did not take them - they considered it too cruel. “We have all social propaganda - candy: teddy bears, zebras. Nobody wants the truth of life,” Bachinskaya believes.

The truth of life is such that with resuscitation, in fact, everything is also bad. Nearly half of the victims die at the scene of the accident. “If the bleeding is stopped within the first ten minutes and an anesthetic injection is given, up to 90% of the victims can be saved,” says Andrey, an employee of the Moscow search and rescue service. Drivers simply do not know how to help a bleeding person. If the culprit of the accident did not flee the scene of the accident, then all his help is a call to the ambulance. Medvedev said that drivers will be forced to learn how to provide first aid.

No one undertakes to even roughly estimate how long it will take to make roads safer, drivers more accurate, and traffic police officers more attentive and, most importantly, incorruptible. Russia supported the UN initiative to declare 2011-2020 a "Decade for Road Safety". So at least ten years.