Jaywalkers were to blame for almost one third of last year’s road accidents happened in Chisinau

Almost one third of severe road accidents happened last year in the capital city were caused by pedestrians who crossed the street in a reckless manner. According to a report of the Chisinau Road Police, of the total number of 1195 serious traffic accidents registered in 2007, 331 were caused by pedestrians. They were not attentive while crossing the street, crossed the street in interdicted places or at the red colour of the traffic lights. The greatest number, 266, of the jaywalking-related accidents happened in the moment of crossing the street in interdicted places. At the same time, 30 pedestrians were hit by vehicles when crossing the street while drunk, 35 were victims of their own inattention going into the street either in front or in the back of a stationary vehicle. Last year children were involved in 160 accidents. Three died and 164 were injured. Two of the dead children were victims of inattentive drivers. Police agents have repeatedly held trainings where they instructed pedestrians to pay more attention to the traffic rules in order to avoid serious accidents. They are advised to cross the street in pedestrian areas, in the places containing road signs reading “pedestrian passage” and only at the green colour of the traffic lights. Also, in order to avoid the collision with a moving vehicle, pedestrians must wait for public transport on sidewalks or in specially designed places, while after getting off the public transport they must not cross the street in front of or in the back of the vehicle, but must wait for it to leave the bus stop and cross the street on ‘zebras’.