The number of accidents on the Moscow Ring Road fell after the conclusion of an agreement between insurers and the data center

The launch of a project under which insurers are provided with camera recordings to document minor accidents has made it possible to reduce the number of minor accidents and accidents with victims on the Moscow Ring Road by 15% since the beginning of the year. This was stated by the Moscow City Hall, clarifying that we are talking about so-called secondary accidents, when drivers stopped to register an accident according to the European protocol or while waiting for the traffic police. Representatives of the insurance business and independent experts support the project, but call for improvements to the technology used.

In the Moscow Department of Transport on Monday reported about a 15% reduction in the number of minor accidents and accidents with victims on the Moscow Ring Road over the 11 months of this year thanks to an agreement between the Traffic Management Center (TCOC) and insurance companies, which was concluded as part of a pilot project at the beginning of the year. It was launched to reduce “secondary” accidents – collisions with citizens who had previously stopped on the Moscow Ring Road to register an accident according to the European protocol or while waiting for the traffic police.

The authorities have installed cameras along the highway, and now insurers receive footage from any area upon request. In total, 900 videos have already been provided in this way, the Department of Transport reported on Monday.

In case of minor collisions, the authorities suggest that motorists quickly remove their cars from the roadway in order to complete the clearance off the road or in a safe pocket.

According to the traffic police, the number of deaths on the Moscow Ring Road over the past ten months has decreased by 9.1%, while in the capital as a whole the figure has increased by 2.9%. The data center at Kommersant said that the number of “secondary” accidents has decreased by 20% thanks to “prompt response using cameras”: the “Road Patrol” goes to the scene of the incident and moves the damaged cars to a safe place. If there is an accident with casualties, the area is fenced off.

In the summer, insurers complained about the short retention period of camera data – just five days – indicating that the average time it takes car owners to file claims is seven to ten days.

“Based on the requests, the conditions for storing video recordings and the procedure for interaction between insurers and the data processing center were changed,” the Soglasie company told Kommersant. “Since October 13 of this year, a new agreement has been in force, according to which the data center undertakes to store video materials for no more than six months. The recommended period for insurance companies to contact the data center is ten days.” The center, however, did not confirm this information to Kommersant: “We are considering the option of storing video for up to 30 days; after analyzing the operation of the entire system, we will be able to determine exactly what storage period is most appropriate.”

Consent also talks about the problem of the low quality of the video materials provided, when the make or license plate of the car is not visible. “The share of non-informative material is on average about 40%,” the company told Kommersant. “There is no stability in this indicator, but over the past two months there has been a positive trend; more informative materials are presented than in previous periods.” “Initially, we assumed that in 5% of cases the camera’s view could be blocked by a truck or other obstacle, and we informed the insurers about this,” the data center comments. “The number of such cases is currently minimal.”

Deputy General Director of Absolut Insurance Igor Liukin considers the project effective, but notes that insurers are inconvenient to receive data from cameras by mail. “We would like to do integration via API (Application Programming Interface, software interface.— “Kommersant”), he says. “This will allow us to automate the data acquisition process, improve security and operational efficiency.”

“The project is necessary, which, although slowly, is moving in the right direction,” confirms the head of the Probok.net expert center Alexander Shumsky. “We need a large information campaign so that drivers have confidence: for every accident there will definitely be a video, which, if necessary, will be received Insurance Company”.

“Videos of driving on the Moscow Ring Road are shown from every iron,” says, in turn, the coordinator of the “Blue Buckets” movement, Pyotr Shkumatov. “But the ideal result is still far from being achieved. It is not clear why the data center provides the video only to insurers, and the participants in the accident themselves cannot receive it.”

Ivan Buranov