On Easter day a foremost TV journalist, the charismatic Milen Tsvetkov was killed in a freak accident on a Sofia boulevard as he was waiting at a red light in his car. The jeep which rammed, at high speed, into the back of his vehicle left no tire tracks to show it had made any attempt to kill the speed. The security camera video of the accident is truly heart-breaking.

In these past days since the accident took place there have been all kinds of reactions – emotional, empathic, angry, rational. President Rumen Radev commented that the tragic death of journalist Milen Tsvetkov had shed light on a risk that hangs over each and every Bulgarian citizen – the risk of falling victim to lawlessness. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov described what had happened as a “grave, atrocious and unfortunate accident” adding that legislative changes are needed urgently.

The “Democratic Bulgaria” coalition, of which Milen Tsvetkov was a sympathizer and anchor of its special election coverage, is calling for an objective investigation and measures for overcoming the systemic factors that led up to the accident, factors that have been public knowledge for years, including an emergency programme for improving road safety conditions and a radical reform in the way road traffic control functions.

Bogdan Milchev from the Road Safety Institute said, for the BNR, that he was skeptical of the intention of changes. “We cannot change the driving behavior of people whose perception is that the state does not exist. Because we are feigning control, we are feigning that we are building a safe infrastructure. We are feigning legislation and training. We have been talking about amending the law, about changing the sanctions for five years, but nothing has been happening. If we want to have reason to say anything positive about road safety many changes need to be made, but the people such changes depend on seem to have no such intentions.”

The expert stands by the words that he who provides the transport system creates the conditions and the rules on the road and must do something if they are violated. “At the moment these rules are the responsibility of 11 institutions! At the moment we do not even believe that justice will be served to the driver who killed Milen Tsvetkov on Easter day, who was on drugs.”

Four people have been detained in connection with the car accident – the 22-year old driver of the SUV which killed Milen Tsvetkov, his mother – manager of one of the biggest wine and alcoholic beverages companies in the country, the son of a well-known MP and the driver’s girlfriend who was also in the vehicle. The fact that it is a high-profile case means it is highly unlikely that personal responsibility can be avoided. But people fear problems of a wider significance will be underrated. The driver was under the influence of drugs, the mother gave him the vehicle even though she knew of his addiction, the driver’s girlfriend and the MP’s son fled from the site of the accident, even though later they did give evidence. The MP in question is known as the man behind a draft bill for the liberalization of drugs. These circumstances are a vivid illustration that a sense of irresponsibility and impunity have been running rampant at different levels of Bulgarian society.

“We are seeing systemic violations of traffic rules and the rule of law in the country,” commented Diana Rusinova from the European Centre for Transport Policies for the BNR. “We have a problem in our society because this is not the first time we have allowed such a driver to get in his car and kill someone. They are multiplying. Many such incidents remain unpublicized. In her words the severity of the law should be such as not to allow this to happen and efforts should be made towards preventing and combatting this type of crimes.

No individual institution, authority or law can deal with such phenomena. The freak accident that took the life of journalist Milen Tsvetkov shows that the battle against them should be taken up by us all, at the same time and in all ways possible. And that that must take place right now if we want to disprove the idea – as Slavi Angelov, a journalist who was beaten up badly a month ago, wrote in 24 Chasa newspaper today – that the traffic lights of Bulgaria are never red for “pets” like the driver of the killer car brought up from infancy in the knowledge that nothing is ever their fault, that they are always right whatever may happen.

Photos: BGNES