“We can say, with 100% certainty, that the likelihood of this accident occurring would have been significantly reduced because following our proposal, all the trucks – because as we have seen today, in this case, it was a Slovak truck that caused the accident – would have had to drive this route through Slovenia at night time,” said the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) Vice-President Aleš Hojs, who believes that the likelihood of a serious accident like the one that occurred on Monday on the Slovenian motorway would have been much lower if the SDS party’s proposals to decongest the motorways had been taken into account, but which, with the cynicism of the Motorway Company of the Republic of Slovenia (DARS) and the government of the Republic of Slovenia, “ended up in the garbage.”
SDS party Vice-President Aleš Hojs expressed his condolences at the tragic event that took place on Monday on the Slovenian motorway, involving three cars and two trucks. Two vehicles caught fire in the collision, and three people died at the scene of the accident. He pointed out that the likelihood of such tragedies would have been much lower if the Slovenian government and the Motorway Company – DARS had taken the SDS party’s proposals to relieve the burden of the transit traffic more seriously. Namely, a Slovak truck was also involved in the recent serious accident.
“It is an indisputable fact that the SDS party’s proposal to shift truck traffic and partly tourist traffic, which was also our proposal, to nighttime during these summer months would significantly reduce the congestion on Slovenian motorways. Now, it is impossible to be one hundred percent certain whether or not it would have prevented this accident, but we can say with 100% certainty that the likelihood of this accident occurring would have been significantly reduced because following our proposal, all the trucks – because as we have seen today, in this case, it was a Slovak truck that caused the accident – would have had to drive this route through Slovenia at night time,” Hojs said in his introduction.
DARS mocked the SDS party’s proposal
To make matters even more tragic, Hojs pointed out that DARS had also literally mocked the proposal – “They said in their reply at the time that freight traffic is not a problem at all on Slovenian motorways, which is far from the truth. I think we can safely say that the good initiative we took unfortunately ended up in the garbage, due to the cynicism of DARS and the lack of response from those who decide on this – the Government of the Republic of Slovenia,” he believes.
According to the Ljubljana Police Directorate, three cars (one with a trailer) and two trucks were involved in a chain accident on the southern part of the Ljubljana ring road, near the Rudnik exit towards Koper. According to police information, three people died at the scene, and one was seriously injured.
The regulation does not mean additional bureaucracy but a distribution of traffic during daytime hours
Hojs argues that if DARS and the government were to follow the SDS party’s proposals to shift transit freight traffic to nighttime, it would significantly reduce travel times for Slovenian commuters and drastically reduce congestion on Slovenian motorways. He sees the solution as a temporary regulation until roads are built to meet the needs, but until then, he sees this regulation as the most sensible, “Everywhere in the world they do it, in Austria, for example, where they have enough roads to take all the traffic, they have adopted such regulation, only in reverse. For environmental reasons, in some places, trucks are banned from driving at night,” he tweeted. Responding to criticism that “temporary regulation” could become permanent and further bureaucratise the country, he said that he agreed that we don’t really need additional bureaucracy, but that in this case, “it is about regulating who drives on the motorways, it’s about regulating traffic flows, i.e., to distribute the number of vehicles more evenly throughout the day, which means that those 10,000 lorries or tourists would not be passing through Slovenia at the times of the day when roads are already filled with commuters, meaning that those who have to get to work would have enough space to do so in a fast and safe way.”
Hojs doubts that the tragic event will make the government reconsider
Unfortunately, former Minister of the Interior Hojs does not expect the tragic accident to have any impact on the consciousness of the Slovenian government and DARS. “They are so self-confident and convinced that what they are doing is right, and I don’t think this will change their thinking,” he said. The SDS party is constantly working on proposals to relieve freight traffic and is looking for ways to relieve traffic during the hours when Slovenian citizens migrate the most to their homes and workplaces.
