TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS KILLS 332 PEOPLE LAST YEAR
Armenpress
Feb 08 2007
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS: A deputy chief of police blamed
yesterday a 20 percent rise in traffic accidents last year on improving
living conditions of his country fellows ‘who can now afford buying
more and more cars.’ Another reason according to Lieutenant -General
Hovhannes Hunanian is a massive repair of the country’s roads due to
which motorist drive with higher speed.
Hovhannes Hunanian said a total of 1,574 road accidents were reported
last year by Armenian traffic police which killed 332 and injured 2,089
people. In the last four years, he said, Armenians bought 80,000 cars
and 24,000 in 2006 alone. Hunanian said traffic police is undergoing
a sweeping reform which he said is supposed to improve the work of
road policemen and bring order to roads.
According to other figures, released by Hunanian, crimes rate last
year rose nearly 10 percent to 9,757, but he argued that the higher
crime rate had not any impact on the criminal situation.
The figures released by Hunanian show that 75 people were murdered
last year, sharply up from 55 such cases officially registered in 2005.
Law-enforcement authorities also registered a more than 30 percent
surge in instances of drug abuse and trafficking that totaled 1,510,
or nearly 16 percent of the overall crime statistics.