Russian Roads are dangerous !
A Global Summit on road safety was held in Moscow last week, to co-ordinate efforts to reduce traffic injuries worldwide.
Russia has roughly the worst road accident statistics in Europe, and a quick trip around any Russian city will quickly back up these statistics.Concepts such as lane discipline, speed limits, traffic laws or respect for other users are alien to most Russian drivers.Drivers routinely make their own lanes, accelerate wildly and rarely stop for pedestrians, unless the pedestrian happens to be a policeman with a gun.
I vividly remember my craziest road safety moment in Russia, which ironically happened whilst I was a pedestrian.I was walking along the street on a dark snowy evening, when I suddenly became aware of a noisy car engine and dim headlights hurtling up behind me.
I looked around and was astonished to find that this car was using the snow cleared pavement as a ready made road, if I didn’t get out of the way then I would be squashed.
Each side of the pavement was bordered by a 2 metre almost vertical wall of fairly dense snow, meaning that to get out of the way I had to climb over this. I flung myself high against the wall of the snow bank and held on for grim life. The car roared past, narrowly missing my bottom and legs by a few inches and disappeared into the night.
I’ve had many other near misses in Russia, whilst trying to cross the road at specially designated “pedestrian crossings”.
Russian drivers have absolutely no qualms about driving on the pavement. They will often pull off the road and drive on the pavement past a few bus stops filled with people in order to park right next to their favourite Produki (food shop). Their attitude seems to be – “I’m in a car so get out of my way, you peasant !”.
All I can say is “If you visit Russia then take care on the roads”.
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