Coaches specialise in knocking down pedestrians

BAKU/14.02.14/TURAN : A shuttle bus struck and killed a pedestrian today .

As the Sabail District Police Department of Baku city told Turan, Farid Garayev (the driver of the 120th Daewoo bus with state number 10 TF 573, on the route from Samad Vurgun Garden to the shopping centre Sederek) knocked over a resident of the capital, Oleg Stolyarov, who was born in 1969.

The tragic incident occurred in front of the house at 25 Neymatzade Street in the Sabail district where the 24 year old driver lost control of the vehicle. The pedestrian suffering from fractures was taken to the Medical Center but unfortunately died there, without regaining consciousness .

According to Chief State Traffic Police Department, in 2013 as a result of 2,846 accidents a total of 1,164 people died and 2, 948 were injured. Figures detailing accidents (drunk driving, speeding, improper overtaking, contrary to transport of passengers, driving without documents, resisting police, and so on) were last issued by the traffic police in the 1st half of 2012 .

According to Turan, based on media reports, in 2013 public transport vehicles have struck 265 pedestrians, of whom 42 died. About half of the accidents occur in the overcrowded city of Baku, half of them are in connection with driving vehicles with or without documents. The highest turnover is common among bus drivers, the reason for that is no formal employment contracts, social insecurity and extortion at all levels.

Incidentally, from 1988 to 2013 inclusive, on the roads of Azerbaijan there were 66,987 accidents, which killed 23,413 and wounded 74,781 people. Most losses (3,336 accidents and 1,281 deaths) were recorded in 1991. The least losses (1,996 accidents and 554 dead) were noted in 1999. - 17D-