State capacity
There's more to being a successful state than security and economic stability.Russia Seeks to Improve Safety of Its Roads
A wave of horrific traffic accidents in Russia in recent weeks has prompted high-level meetings and vows from top officials to improve the safety of the country’s roads, where the deaths per capita are several times higher than in most developed countries and are nearly double the figure in the United States.
On Thursday, President Dmitri A. Medvedev took the unusual step of convening an automobile safety conference, saying that the death rates were unacceptable and demanded that officials develop proposals to lower them.
“The national economy lost $175 billion from traffic accidents over the past five years,” Mr. Medvedev said. “That is comparable with overall health care expenditures of the same period.”...
Several factors make Russia’s roads dangerous. Highways are poorly maintained, and Russians often drive older cars that lack modern safety equipment. The traffic police are widely considered to be corrupt, and drivers who break the law can often escape punishment by paying a bribe on the spot, allowing them to stay on the road.
Even so, Mr. Medvedev and other top officials have skirted the issue of police corruption, focusing instead on poor driving and a fatalistic culture of disregard for road safety. Mr. Medvedev last month even denounced what he referred to as “the undisciplined, criminally careless behavior of our drivers.”
The government has advanced several proposals in recent weeks to address the rise in accidents...
Yet some experts are skeptical, pointing out that until official corruption is reduced, efforts to tighten penalties and enforcement will amount to little...
Labels: capacity, concepts, Russia
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:59 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home