Bulgaria’s printed media accentuate for the third consecutive day on the tragic accident on Hemus motorway last Sunday when a corroded metal lamp beam fell on a passenger vehicle in Echemishka tunnel and killed a 64 years-old Bulgarian woman who was sitting in the front seat. Bulgaria’s Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works has ordered that the traffic through Echemishka tunnel on Hemus motorway has to resume by February 12-14 at the latest, Trud daily announces on Wednesday. 

Nobody makes safety inspections of tunnels and bridges, Sega daily comments on its first pages on occasion of the urgent inspection of those facilities initiated recently by the Bulgarian authorities. The newspaper quotes the Chairman of the Union of Bulgarian Motorists Boris Gavrilov who contends that there aren’t any road inspectors controlling the condition of the road network in Bulgaria and that the authorities had to train experts years ago. According to an analysis of the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior, the road connecting Bulgaria’s capital Sofia and the coastal city of Varna is the most dangerous one in terms of car accidents and road fatalities, 24 Chassa informs on Wednesday. 

Former Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Lilyana Pavlova understands peoples’ anger shown after the tragic accident in Echemishka tunnel, Standard daily informs. Meanwhile, Pilyana Pavlova condemned all speculation attempts and called on the society and the institutions to unite around the necessity for provision of higher financial resource aimed at guaranteeing safety on the country’s roads. For that purpose, Bulgaria needs nearly EUR 500 million per year. Monitor daily reminds on Wednesday that according to the 2020 National Strategy for Improvement of Traffic Safety, the newly-constructed roads should have no or few turns only and that the old ones should be reconstructed, in order to guarantee higher safety for drivers and passengers.

Duma daily also pays attention to the safety of the transport infrastructure. It accentuates on the latest statement of the caretaker Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications about the condition of the Bulgarian State Railways. BDZ is in a very critical condition and its management has not done enough to guarantee smooth functioning of its passenger department, Minister Hristo Alexiev says and forecasted that in 2017 the Bulgarian State Railways Passenger Department will not fulfill its traffic schedule due to the lack of locomotives, diesel trains and carriages.