Rushing to the grave

November brought bad news. Only a month ago traffic police statistics suggested that the number of road deaths this year would not surpass last year's figure of 900. It might have been successful. The lowest number of road deaths recorded in a year was 781 two years ago (after which the numbers began to climb again).

The latest batch of statistics shows that there will be nothing to celebrate. Drivers have underestimated wet conditions and poor visibility at night. More than 100 people died on Czech roads in November, and we should be happy if this year's death toll doesn't surpass 1,000. When compared international statistics, the Czech Republic has an average of 119 road deaths per million people. This is far worse than the average (Holland is number one with 48 deaths per million). The days when we finally learn to drive are still clearly far off.

All the more so, since the new traffic police chief Leoš Tržil claims that the problem can be solved with better roads and by cracking down on careless pedestrians. However the fact that more and more people know how to deal with the arrogance of drivers brings hope. Now it's a matter of waiting to see which policy will win out.

Smooth traffic flow

Traffic police chief Leoš Tržil, originally a construction engineer, likes cars. For many years, he owned the antique model Tatra 613 and organised…