High mortality on roads in Russia is associated with their long length, head of the state traffic police, Mikhail Chernikov, said.
According to Mikhail Chernikov, there are a number of factors that lead to fatal traffic accidents in Russia. One of them is poor driver training: despite the tighter requirements for driving tests at the traffic police applied a few years ago, drivers still fail to receive the necessary training, TASS news agency quoted Chernikov as saying.
Drunk driving is another acute problem, as fatal accidents often occur precisely for this reason. Talking on the phone while driving also often leads to bad accidents.
At the same time, according to Chernikov, it would be incorrect to compare the number of fatal accidents in Russia with similar statistics in Europe. Russia’s roads are too long, with their length totaling 4 mio km, so Russian drivers spend more time behind the wheel than European ones. Accordingly, the chance of getting into an accident increases.