The Institute for Road Safety (IPB) sent a strategic report to Prime Minister Rumen Radev, in which it demanded a radical change in the management of road infrastructure and accused the institutions of hiding the real number of victims in accidents.
The experts pointed out that in 2024 and 2025, a total of 110 deaths were deleted from the statistics of the Ministry of Interior. According to the organization, in 2024, 48 deaths were artificially removed, and in 2025 - 62.
The non-governmental organization was asked for a deep structural reform, which includes the merger of the Agency “Road Infrastructure“ (API) and the State Agency for Road Safety (DABDP) into a single Bulgarian Road Administration. The proposal envisages that the new structure will be a primary budget spender, directly accountable to the Council of Ministers and the Parliament.
The document noted the need for control over the toll system to be transferred to the Executive Agency for the Automobile Administration under the Ministry of Transport. The IPB added that this would ensure a comprehensive inspection of heavy goods traffic and eliminate the risk of corruption.
This is not the institute's first signal to the prime minister. Earlier, the organization criticized the state for a lack of transparency in the road sector and demanded a change in the leadership of the Financial Supervision Commission due to sabotage of the bonus-malus system. The experts also proposed the creation of a state insurance company to break down cartel practices in the compulsory insurance market.
In this report, the IPB called for a transition to the philosophy of “Mission Zero“, in which the responsibility for safety falls on the designers of the roads, and not only on the drivers. The institute expressed its readiness to assist the government in conducting independent audits of the existing infrastructure.
STRATEGIC REPORT
TO: THE MINISTER-PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA
FROM: THE TEAM OF THE INSTITUTE FOR ROAD SAFETY (IPB)
REGARDING: Transition from the exhausted model of “shared responsibility“ to “chain of responsibility“ through structural reform and implementation of the concept of “Mission Zero“
1. Introduction: The Existential Crisis and the Need for Radical Change
Road traffic injuries in Bulgaria are among the most severe socio-economic, demographic and health crises for the country. Our persistent ranking in last place in the European Union in road safety is not due to a lack of funds or a specific national mentality. It is a direct symptom of an exhausted and conceptually wrong model of governance.
For years, the state has been placing all the blame on the end user (the driver). It is time for a fundamental paradigm shift: a transition from the illusion of the perfect, robotic driver to the construction of a “Safe System“ (Safe System Approach), based on the Swedish experience Vision Zero, adapted by the IBP as the strategy “Mission Zero“.
2. The “Mission Zero“ philosophy and the chain of responsibility
“Mission Zero“ rejects the utilitarian approach in which human life has a monetary value or is balanced in the name of economic efficiency. Zero is the only morally acceptable number for road fatalities.
Since people presumably make cognitive and physiological errors, responsibility must be transferred to the “system designers“ (state institutions, engineers, municipalities, legislators). The chain of responsibility is based on three pillars:
1 Absolute primary responsibility of designers: They are obliged to create a “forgiving“ environment (road geometry, physical dividers, roundabouts) that does not allow the release of kinetic energy above the threshold of biomechanical tolerance of the human body.
2 Limited liability of users: Compliance with basic rules (legal capacity, sobriety). The administrative justification "high speed and reckless driving" must remain a thing of the past.
3 Corrective duty of the system: If the driver makes a mistake or breaks the rules, the system must be designed to compensate for the error and prevent a fatal outcome.
3. Anatomy of institutional collapse (2024-2025)
The current model is maintained through two vicious practices: administrative mimicry and concealing managerial weakness through "statistical victories".
Data manipulation: According to IPB data, in 2024 the Ministry of Interior artificially deleted 48 actual deaths (~9.1%) from the official report, reducing the black statistics from 526 to 478 people. In 2025, the manipulation escalated — 456 deaths were reported, while the real number was 518 (62 deleted persons or ~12%). This hinders the scientific analysis of risk factors and lulls institutions into a false sense of success.
The paralysis of the State Agency for Road Safety: Established at the initiative of IPB after the tragedy near Svoge (2018), the State Agency for Road Safety has degraded to a passive “chronicler of inaction”. Its voluminous reports serve to deflect responsibility, instead of imposing proactive measures. Examples such as the incident on the I-3 road in April 2025 prove that the State Road Administration knows which are the critical sections, but does not have the mechanisms or will to oblige the road owners (RAAs) to secure them before the fatal blow.
4. Plan for deep structural reform in management
By 2025-2026, revenues from vignettes and tolls in Bulgaria will exceed 1 billion leva per year, but the state of the republican network is deteriorating due to fragmented budgets, power-hungry departmental management and financing “on a residual principle“.
In the context of the administrative reforms being prepared by the new government, the IPB proposes the following consolidated restructuring model:
Step 1: Merger of RAAs and State Road Administration into a Unified “Bulgarian Road Administration“ (BPA)
The separation between road maintenance (API) and safety policies (DABDP) generates analyses without implementation and diffusion of responsibility.
The solution: Creation of a cohesive megastructure - BPA, which unites the expert potential and bears direct responsibility both for the spending of money and for the number of human victims.
Safety guarantee: Mandatory preliminary audit of each investment project and legally protected independence of the Chief Inspector for Road Safety within the new structure.
Step 2: RIA (resp. the new BPA) as a primary budget spending authority
Currently, RIA is a secondary spending authority to the MRDPW, which creates financial fog. The funds from road tolls sink into the consolidated state budget, serving foreign policies, and repairs are decided politically, instead of expertly.
The solution: The new administration should become the primary budget spender, directly accountable to the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly. With over 1 billion leva of its own resources, basic maintenance will be planned long-term, transparently and without the need for subsidies from the central budget.
Step 3: Transferring Toll Control to the Ministry of Transport
Collecting tolls from the structure that spends the money is a classic conflict of interest.
The solution: The National Toll Administration should be transferred under the umbrella of the Executive Agency “Automobile Administration“ (IAAA) to the Ministry of Transport. This will provide a comprehensive inspection of heavy goods traffic (taxi, overloading, technical condition) in one place, eliminating the risk of corruption and stopping the destruction of roads by overloaded trucks.
5. Three effective forms of management for implementing the reform
In order for the new Bulgarian Road Administration to work, its operational activities must obey three European management models:
1 Management by Objectives: Instead of reporting the failure after the event (number of bodies), we introduce quantitative targets for intermediate indicators (leading indicators): percentage of drivers observing the restrictions; share of roads with physical barriers; percentage of seat belts worn in the back seats; technical condition of the vehicle fleet. Their achievement is monitored through annual public conferences and National Safety Day.
2 Network Management: Total destruction of the “silo“ model between the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, the Ministry of Transport and the municipalities. The BPA should act as an aggressive facilitator — in the event of an open risk on the road, the Ministry of Interior immediately increases control, the builder changes the geometry of the section, and the municipality illuminates the area. All this — based on science and evidence, not on political populism.
3 Consumer management through market mechanisms: Using the enormous purchasing power of the state and municipalities. In public procurement for transport (school buses, administrative cars, logistics), the highest safety rating (5 stars from Euro NCAP) and active braking systems, as well as ISO 39001 certification for companies, are imperatively required. This will force the market to modernize itself.
6. The Strategic Capacity of the Road Safety Institute (RSI)
Faced with a staff shortage and the need for rapid reforms, the new government does not need to start from scratch or waste time wandering. IPB has the accumulated intellectual capital, international partnerships and a multidisciplinary team of certified auditors, road engineers and urban planners.
IPB declares full readiness to assist the Council of Ministers in the following areas:
Drafting specific action plans and setting real KPIs for the new BPA.
Conducting independent audits of the safety of the existing infrastructure and cleaning up falsified statistical data.
Methodological assistance to municipalities in redesigning the urban environment and protecting vulnerable participants (pedestrians and cyclists).
7. Conclusion
The transition to “Mission Zero“ and the creation of a Unified Bulgarian Road Administration is a matter of political courage to break with the status quo. By unifying budgets, eliminating corruption pressure in the toll system, and subordinating infrastructure to the ethical imperative of protecting life, the new government can, within the current mandate, bring Bulgaria out of the black statistics of Europe.
Road safety is not a temporary media campaign. It is a supreme function of state governance.