A tragic traffic accident on Monday morning claimed five lives and rekindled discussions about “war on the roads” that Lithuania thought it was winning.
The tragic accident on Monday morning happened on a narrow road near the town of Maišiagala, some 20 kilometres north-east of Vilnius. A passenger car crashed into a lorry. According to the lorry driver, the Audi jumped in front of him from the oncoming lane. The car got hit, slid under the lorry, which got pushed off the road.
Five people were killed in the accident. Two boys, aged 17 and eight, died instantly, as well as two adults, aged 25 and 43. Rescuers managed to get a six-year-old girl out of the car and took her to hospital, but medics could not save her life.
While the exact cause of the accident is still under investigation, traffic police chief Vytautas Grašys says speeding is the most common factor.
“Even after today’s [Monday’s] really bad accident in the Vilnius District, our officers working on the country’s highways are recording speeds of 192 km/h, when the speed limit is 130 km/h,” he told LRT TV. “It shows that, although some drivers do hear that they are risking their lives and health, the message does not reach the brain of everyone. My wish is that they would think more.”
The accident near Maišiagala was the most tragic in recent days, although police say last weekend was exceptionally tense. They stopped 115 drunk drivers, a figure comparable to spikes in drunk driving on big holidays.
According to officials, 54 people have been killed in traffic accidents since the beginning of the year, compared to 14 in the same period last year.
“Speeding, pedestrians breaking rules, pedestrians are often too relaxes,” Grapšys names some of the factors.
According to the Road Administration, newly installed speed cameras, that record vehicle’s average speed over a longer distance rather than the speed at which they drive past the device, has made a significant difference in disciplining drivers.
“Statistically speaking, the installation of average speed measurement systems on these stretches has reduced the number of fatalities around eight times and the number of injuries by 59 percent in one year,” according to Dovilė Krasauskaitė, head of Traffic Safety Department.
However, speeding is not always the main cause of accidents. On Saturday afternoon, residents of Kaunas District reported a tragic collision on the road towards the village of Lapės, killing three. Once again, two cars crashed in a head-on collision after one swered into an opposite lane.
“In three and a half months, we’ve had 10 traffic deaths in the county. This is certainly a lot and we are concerned about it,” says Kaunas Traffic Police Chief Vygintas Lukošius. “However, whether that’s a consolation or not, these accidents had more to do with subjective, human factors, where much was down to the driver, not infrastructure, bad roads, bad markings or something else.”
The police are urging drivers not to rush, drive carefully, and follow traffic rules.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
