Milan Kilian
Reporter of the Pilsen region
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More traffic accidents and, above all, more deaths, twice as much. The number of lightly and seriously injured also increased. The first quarter of this year on the roads of the Pilsen region was extremely tragic compared to the same period last year.
Tragic accident in Luby under the viaduct.
| Photo: Deník/Daniela Loudová
“In the first three months of this year, the police investigated 1,112 traffic accidents in which 13 people were killed, 16 were seriously injured and 317 participants were slightly injured. Compared to the same period last year, six more people died in traffic accidents in our region. The most tragic month of this year was March, when eight lives were lost on the roads in the Pilsen region,” police spokeswoman Iva Vršecká summed up.
Compared to last year, the number of accidents in the region increased by almost nine percent, the number of injured and especially the dead increased even more significantly, the ones drastically. The damages are also higher, this year in the first quarter alone, according to police statistics, they exceeded 88 million crowns.
As for fatal accidents, according to Vršecká, the most common cause was improper driving, specifically, not paying attention to driving, often in combination with excessive speed. “The next step is driving in the opposite direction or driving off the road and a subsequent collision with an oncoming vehicle or a fixed obstacle. Two tragic traffic accidents were caused by failure to yield the right of way. One of the victims was a pedestrian in a crosswalk and one of the accidents was caused by a driver who drove under the viaduct with a vehicle whose height exceeded the limit marked on the prohibited traffic sign,” the police spokeswoman concluded.
A pedestrian was hit by a bus on Karlovarská třída in Pilsen. The man died on the spot
She reminded that police officers carry out preventive traffic safety actions throughout the year, which are aimed at checking compliance with road traffic rules. A breathalyzer test of the vehicle driver is part of every roadside inspection. “In the Czech Republic, there is a zero tolerance for alcohol among vehicle drivers, yet driving under the influence of alcohol was the cause of 62 traffic accidents during the mentioned period,” stated Vršecká. At the same time, she appealed to all road users to pay attention to safety. E.g. that pedestrians cross where they are supposed to and cyclists use helmets.
