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POLICE REPORT SURGE IN 2007 CAR ACCIDENTS
By Anna Saghabalian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
July 24 2007
Police reported on Tuesday a major increase in the number of car
accidents in Armenia, blaming it on increasingly heavy traffic in
the country.
Colonel Ishkhan Ishkhanian, chief of the Armenian traffic police,
put the death from the nearly 800 accidents registered during the
first half of this year at 139, up by 23 percent from the same period
last year. He said the number of people injured as a result jumped
by nearly 40 percent to 1,140.
The police had registered just over 600 accidents across the country
in January-June 2006.
Ishkhanian said they believe the main cause of the almost 31 percent
surge in accidents is a rapidly growing number of cars and trucks
on Armenian roads. According to official statistics cited by him,
some 25,000 vehicles were imported to Armenia in the course of 2006
and another 16,000 in the first half of 2007, raising their total
number to roughly 350,000.
Increased car sales are particularly visible in Yerevan where traffic
jams are becoming an increasingly serious problem. Many motorists
feel that the reputedly corrupt traffic police are also to blame for
the traffic jams.
The recently restructured traffic police have always denied
that bribery and other corrupt practices among their officers are
widespread. In Ishkhanian's words, only one officer has been prosecuted
and three others fired for bribery this year.
By Anna Saghabalian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
July 24 2007
Police reported on Tuesday a major increase in the number of car
accidents in Armenia, blaming it on increasingly heavy traffic in
the country.
Colonel Ishkhan Ishkhanian, chief of the Armenian traffic police,
put the death from the nearly 800 accidents registered during the
first half of this year at 139, up by 23 percent from the same period
last year. He said the number of people injured as a result jumped
by nearly 40 percent to 1,140.
The police had registered just over 600 accidents across the country
in January-June 2006.
Ishkhanian said they believe the main cause of the almost 31 percent
surge in accidents is a rapidly growing number of cars and trucks
on Armenian roads. According to official statistics cited by him,
some 25,000 vehicles were imported to Armenia in the course of 2006
and another 16,000 in the first half of 2007, raising their total
number to roughly 350,000.
Increased car sales are particularly visible in Yerevan where traffic
jams are becoming an increasingly serious problem. Many motorists
feel that the reputedly corrupt traffic police are also to blame for
the traffic jams.
The recently restructured traffic police have always denied
that bribery and other corrupt practices among their officers are
widespread. In Ishkhanian's words, only one officer has been prosecuted
and three others fired for bribery this year.