Accidents on Russian roads have increased by 4.9% since the beginning of the year – Kommersant

The traffic police yesterday released statistics on accident rates for the nine months of 2023. In total, 96.7 thousand road accidents occurred in Russia (4.9% more than in the same period last year), in which 10.3 thousand people died (+1.3%), 121.4 thousand people were injured (+4.3%). 66 thousand accidents occurred due to the fault of car drivers, of which 5.6 thousand accidents were due to the fault of drunk car owners.

74.5 thousand accidents were recorded in cities and towns, 13.6 thousand on federal roads, 18.8 thousand on regional and intermunicipal roads, 63.5 thousand on local highways, and on toll highways – 508.

The leading regions in the number of accidents are Moscow (6.1 thousand), Krasnodar Territory (4.4 thousand), Nizhny Novgorod Region (3.4 thousand), St. Petersburg (3 thousand), Moscow Region (2. 8 thousand). The largest increase in the number of road accidents is in the Omsk region (+33%), Kalmykia (+30.4%), North Ossetia-Alania (+28.4%), Tuva (+24.2%), Kostroma region (+22. 3%). The leaders in the increase in the number of deaths are Karelia (+96.8%), Kalmykia (+64.2%), Yaroslavl region (+53.6%), Ingushetia (+52.8%), Ivanovo region (+38.8 %).

Let us remind you that the negative trend with an increase in accident rates has been observed since the beginning of the year; Kommersant talked about this back in April. In July, the head of the Russian State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, Mikhail Chernikov, cited among the reasons a change in the direction of cargo flows from west to east and the growing popularity of auto tourism, for which the road infrastructure was not ready. At the end of August, the situation was discussed in the government of the Russian Federation at the traffic safety commission; as a result, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin gave a number of instructions, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Transport, regional authorities, and road workers to develop measures to reduce the number of accidents (see “Kommersant” dated 9 October), including installation of traffic lights at crossings, relocation of cameras to emergency areas and inspection of overtaking zones.

Ivan Buranov