Bulgaria celebrates the UN Global Road Safety Week

A real car smashed in a real road accident will be mounted on a billboard in a major Sofia junctions Monday to mark Bulgaria’s accession to the UN Global Road Safety Week. The fixture is meant as a warning to all reckless drivers and a reminder of all road traffic participants to observe the safety rules, said the press office of the Bulgarian Red Cross.

Also on Monday, all participants in in the Bulgarian initiative for the Road Safety Week, mottoed Save a Life, signed the European Road Safety Charter.

The very practical purpose of the Charter is to save 25 000 lives by halving the number of road accident casualties by 2010. It is an appeal and a driving force for all civil society organisations to provide a tangible contribution to increasing road safety in Europe. It is a forum and a platform for the signatories to exchange experiences and new ideas - across national borders - in their efforts towards greater safety on European roads.

The Charter was presented at Sofia’s Sheraton Hotel in the presence of Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev.

In Bulgaria, a total of 45 companies and organizations have joined the Save A Life campaign, said Transport Minister Peter Moutafchiev. Among them are the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the other national news media. Specific ideas were presented by the CEOs of MTel, Overgas, BTC, Multipack, Prista Oil, Kamenitsa and Iveco, to mention but a few companies.

On Friday, the Transport Minister will present the Charter at the National Assembly in the hope that the information will be disseminated by the MPs in their constituencies.

БТА