Traffic Accidents Cost 2.5 Percent of GDP to Russia

Russia annually loses 2.5 percent of GDP on traffic accidents, Interfax reported with reference to Viktor Kiryanov, who heads the traffic safety department at the RF Interior Ministry.
“The 2.5 percent of GDP is the social and economic damage from traffic accidents,” Kiryanov said at the Moscow meeting with chiefs of a big foreign marketing company.

“Some 80 percent of all traffic accidents happen through the drivers’ fault. It is necessary to work with self-consciousness of the people, showing to them what tragedies happen if the traffic safety rules are violated,” Kiryanov specified.

At the meeting, the parties signed an agreement to cooperate in the field of social advertising. According to the document, they will install displays, fluorescent plates, banners and posters showing the advertising clips with consequences of traffic accidents in the stores of the company and at adjacent territory.