And by September 1, 2017, the number of victims comprised 278.  

During the discussion entitled “Road Accidents in Armenia in 2017: Dynamics of Recent Years, Means of Prevention and Legislative Gaps” on November 15 at Media Center, Hrachya Manukyan, Actuary of "Armenian Motor Insurers' Bureau" Union of Legal Entities, presents statistical data on accidents recorded by the Armenian Motor Insurers’ Bureau in recent years, underlining that the number of car accidents has increased in parallel with the increase in the number of cars.

“In 2017, over the past 10 months, about 40,000 road accidents have been registered in APPA information system. If we compare this figure to the same period in 2013, the number has increased by 9% but the number of vehicles has also increased by 18%, which is directly proportional to the number of accidents.”   

Sergey Ghahramanyan, Head of “Varordi Ynker” NGO, citing the RA Traffic Police, notes that by  September 31, 2017, 278 people were killed as a result of road accidents, and this figure will increase in the next three months, which will allow to conclude that this year the mortality rate will be higher than in the previous year.

“About 500 thousand cars are registered in Armenia, most of which are used in Yerevan. Accidents with unfortunate consequences do not occur in a small center where there is a heavy traffic, but in sparsely populated areas too.”

Nikolay Baghdasaryan, Board Chairman of the European Experts Institute, says that there are many factors affecting the number of accidents, and the number of cars is not a decisive factor.

“Science has four factors that affect the number of accidents: driver's knowledge, roads, atmosphere and environment - wind, storm, snow, and so on. In Armenia the drivers’ legal awareness is in the first place, most of them get a driving license with a bribe, the second is the wrong road traffic, especially nodes that contravene safe traffic rules.”

Artyom Nazaryan, Deputy Executive Director of "Armenian Motor Insurers' Bureau" Union of Legal Entities, says that their organization has introduced the Bonus-Malus system since 2016, which measures the drivers' risk of driving, by the number of accidents rather than the experience of the driving license, giving a more objective picture of drivers' skills and abilities.

“The Bonus-Malus system, which takes into account the human insurance history, already contains all the subjective criteria and does not consider the need for additional factors. If the driver, for example, has a 1 year experience and has not had any accidents during that time, then we are less likely to be in danger from our point of view than a driver who has 20-year-old driving experience and two accidents per year.”

To watch the video, follow the link.  

Derenik Malkhasyan, editor/events coordinator at “Media Center”

To contact the author please send an email toderenikmalkhasian@gmail.com.