Map highlights country’s most dangerous roads

The number of traffic accidents on Czech roads dropped sharply after a new points system was introduced in 2006 but has been on a slow but steady increase since then. To fight the rising number of car crashes, the General Automotive Club of the Czech Republic has joined the European Road Assessment Programme and created a map highlighting the most dangerous roads in the Czech Republic. Radio Prague talked to the head of the Automotive Club’s international department Miroslav Fiřt to find out who the map was meant for.

“These maps are based on accident and traffic data that we received from the police. The map is meant for the general public as well as for the country’s road authorities to see what the situation is like at the moment.”

Which roads in the Czech Republic are the most dangerous?

“The map shows specific parts of roads that are more dangerous than others. We can say that the safest roads in the country are always the highways, the motorways and the expressways. It may sound surprising but the D1, the highway between Prague and Brno, which is sometimes dubbed the Road of Death, is in fact four to five times safer than other roads in the country.”

When you compare Czech roads to roads in other countries in the region, are they better or worse?

Photo: Archive of Radio Prague

“They are not much worse, especially the highways. The problem might be in that our network is not as dense as in some neighbouring countries, especially in Germany. But the situation is not really that bad, although the numbers regarding traffic accidents and their consequences are alarming.”

Czech drivers have a bad reputation – do you think that the map could help improve driving in the Czech Republic?

“In some way, it could. At least, drivers have a choice. Based on such a map, they can take some other route; they can decide to drive on a different road. This is not always the case, of course. On the other hand, they are informed on some risky parts of the roads and this should get through to them. They will hopefully react and behave better on the road than they normally do.”