TIRANA TIMES
TIRANA, July 19 – At a time when the government is setting harsher penalties for traffic rules to cope with an increase in road accidents in the main national arteries, a terrible crash has happened with the increase of the number of Albanian immigrants returning home and the number of tourists from neighboring Kosovo and Macedonia for vacation.
The bus crash happened on the brand-new highway linking Albania to Kosovo, and killed 14 people, leaving 12 other injured, two of them still in serious condition.
Authorities said that the accident was not caused by any problem of the road standards, or of the poor abilities of the late driver.
On the other side, President Bamir Topi called on all drivers in the country to take good care of themselves in respecting the driving rules and also on the authorities to be harsher and stricter in respecting the laws when keeping the traffic under control and the people who want to use it.
In another reaction, road experts urged authorities to be stricter in giving the driving licenses to anyone.
So, what are all these warnings about? Experts said neither the road, nor the driver were of any fault.
Much may be understood from such warnings. It is clear that the late driver had the right experience and the vehicle was fine – maybe his mind slipped in just a moment to take his own and 13 other lives.
Not much is said about the road condition. First police said it was heavy rain which caused it. That may be a normal thing when taking into consideration the level of the national roads in such areas.
They are narrow, hardly accepting two vehicles passing along each other unless they are very careful. And something which is very obvious — they have no side barrier to protect them right in such cases when the vehicle may slip.
It is very good that authorities are making new roads or rehabilitating the old ones.
It is good to drive now, say, along the Riviera in southwest and everyone can see that side barriers are so necessary, not to say obligatory. They offer not only a safe driving protecting vehicles from slipping off into the cliffs but also give a psychological support to the driver.
It is good that authorities quadruple fines to drivers not respecting the driving rules. They are indispensable and should be fully applicable, including the fight against police corruption, if Albania wants to have less road dead victims.
But at the same time the government should also start to apply the international or European standards of roads with side barriers, width and all the traffic signs all over the country.
So at this moment the government should morally be responsible to take care of the infants who remained without their parents due to accident and help others affected by the tragedy.
