Bulgarian Traffic Police Head: 27 Taxi Drivers Caught Working despite License Suspension

Bogdan Milchev, head of the Automobile Transport Control department of the Interior, photo by Sofia Photo Agency

Bulgarian Traffic Police head Bogdan Milchev has informed that taxi companies are keeping employees with suspended driver's licenses.

In a Monday interview for the morning broadcast of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), he said that a total of 17 such cases had been detected out of around 4000 taxi drivers inspected.

Milchev explained that the results of this year's inspection were better than last year's, adding that only 6 taxi drivers were to have their licenses suspended due to the depletion of control points as a result various traffic violations.

He noted, however, that statics showed that a total of 855 taxi drivers, or every fourth driver, who had been penalized, evaded the payment of the fine.

Milchev suggested that driving behavior in Sofia was improving, stressing that drivers tended to stop at zebra crossings much more often than two years ago.

He informed that traffic police officers also continued inspections of bike riders, adding that a total of 102 cyclists had been fined so far for various traffic violations.

Milchev said that bike riding had increased substantially in 2013, while traffic accidents involving cyclists had gone up by around 30% in a year.

He reminded that bike drivers were also required to comply with traffic regulations stating that they were not supposed to drink alcohol, cross red lights, ride against traffic, and they were supposed to wear reflective elements (reflective bands, pendants, jackets and etc.), the penalty for such violations amounting to BGN 10-50.

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