Romanian road infrastructure: the deadliest and costliest in Europe

The odds of dying in a car accident in Romania are 40 times higher than the EU average, a recent report warns, citing reasons that include Romanian drivers' inability to drive defensively and poor roads.

Romania is the most accident-prone country in Europe. [Gabriel Petrescu]

Romania enacted legislation in late November banning horses and carts on all main roads in an effort to reduce the number of accidents occurring. The government needs to take action because Romania has the highest number of deadly car accidents in Europe.

Those who use horses and carts depend on them for many functions, such as for travel, to plough fields, and to carry items to sell at market. Therefore, the ban provoked an outcry from that segment, especially because they cause only 10% of all accidents in the country.

Action does need to be taken, however, as one person dies in every three car crashes in Romania. In the rest of the EU, there's a victim every 40 accidents, according to the Romanian Academic Society (SAR) report "Road under Construction", which was released in August.

A statistic provided by the Romanian National Highways and National Roads Company (CNADNR), suggests that Romania is the most accident-prone country in Europe. Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria are close behind with a victim every 6, 7 and 8 accidents, respectively.

According to the latest report on traffic safety from the UN Economic Commission for Europe, Romanians had 6,860 car accidents resulting in 2,418 deaths in 2004. Experts believe the large number of deadly car accidents is a result of Romanian drivers' inability to drive defensively, bad roads, the highways that -- while few in number -- often involve head-on car crashes.

According to SAR, 30% of the national roads are in poor condition because of delayed and flawed maintenance and 60% need urgent repairs or modernising. In comparison, according to CNADNR figures, out of the 5,868km of European roads, 1,863km are in an acceptable state and 1,086km are in poor condition.

The report also discusses the costs of the national road infrastructure. It says that if a small percent of the funds that are allotted to highway construction were redirected to the county and local roads network, which absorbs a large share of the heavy traffic, it could result in an immediate improvement.

SAR also notes that the construction costs for one kilometer of highway in Romania are double those of other central and eastern European countries, such as Poland and Hungary. Additionally, maintenance and operation costs are two times those in the United States and the EU.

"Professional and timely maintenance works can decrease costs up to 40%, but unfortunately in Romania they are the last on the list", says the report, adding that, in some cases, materials used for repairs are not adequate for the climate.

SAR warns that politically motivated top management changes within CNADNR and low implementation capacity of the projects doesn't make better and safer roads in Romania likely soon.