You are about to go on holiday in several days or hours and you have already made your holiday plans. In few kilometers you will reach your holiday destination and you cannot wait to leave your car and forget about the problems and the tasks at least for a week. However, a moment of carelessness may spoil your holiday and you may become part of the statistics of the road traffic casualties or injuries. Since the beginning of 2019 until June a total of 2,896 road traffic accidents were registered in Bulgaria. 254 people died and 3,653 were wounded in these accidents, the statistics of the Bulgarian Road Traffic Police shows. The road traffic accidents are mainly due to human mistakes caused by hasty or ill-considered actions, or fatigue. Children also become victims of these human mistakes. Last year 35 children lost their lives in road accidents and 1,132 were injured.

I would not like to comment the figures, because when we speak of the number of victims and injured in road traffic accidents, we forget to say that this may not happen, if children are taught from an early age to be involved in road traffic, Deputy Director General of the Bulgarian Red Cross Nadezhda Todorovska told Radio Bulgaria. In her words, this is the adults’ responsibility, because a child may not always be able to judge a particular situation itself, but it can repeat the actions of the adult people around it.

The Bulgarian Red Cross organizes road safety and first aid lessons at regular intervals in close cooperation with the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Science and the Union of Bulgarian Motorists. BRC also organizes raffles with the traffic rules, bicycle competitions, etc. 

The partners hold charity campaigns twice a year. The money raised in these campaigns goes to a special fund which provides financial support for medical treatment and rehabilitation of children who suffered injuries or received various degrees of disability as a result of a road accident. According to data of the Bulgarian Red Cross, since the establishment of the fund in 2015 until now, a total of 441,177 Leva (EUR 225,000) was donated to families with children who were injured in road traffic accidents.

Those who want to join the charity campaign can sent a text message with the sum of 50 Eurocents in support of the Bulgarian Red Cross charity fund. Nadezhda Todorovska has more:

This fund provides financial assistance to children only. People who want to receive financial support for their children submit official application to the Bulgarian Red Cross. Every six months of the year the fund helps children who suffered injuries in road accident in that period. Since the establishment of the fund in 2015, we have provided financial assistance to 757 children and their families. This year, in the beginning of June, we provided financial aid to 23 Bulgarian children injured in car accidents. Unfortunately, the injuries have become more severe recently. Therefore, these children need a longer period to revcover. However, the psychological trauma remains much longer.

The current campaign of the Bulgarian Red Cross is held under the motto “Be with us! Together we can do more!” It will continue until October 31 and the money raised in the campaign will be donated families in need on the eve of the Christmas holidays.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov