Red Tape Hot Box on Europe's worst drivers
These factors may partly be responsible for the fact that Poles are considered to be the worst and least safe drivers on the entire continent. And numbers don't lie: taking the number of cars into account, three times as many people in Poland are killed or injured in car accidents than in the so-called 'old EU.' You can blame this on the roads and on the great number of wrecks present on our roads, but the sad truth is that we Poles should swallow our pride and admit that we aren't the best drivers in the world.
It's not that we lack some gene that makes a good driver or that we are completely untalented in this field. No, it's just that we don't have any incentives that encourage us to drive more safely and better. In the USA, for example, the more accidents you have, and the more reckless your driving is, the more you pay. And it's not just the tickets. Your insurance company raises your premiums. Similar rules apply to your vehicle - the safer the car you drive, the less you pay. In Poland, however, the law doesn't allow for any increases in insurance premiums or fines for those who frequently cause accidents or even get tickets on a regular basis. We all pay the same amount, which means that we all sponsor the road-hogs' adventures and their consequences.
And as far as cars go, it doesn't matter whether you drive a 20 year-old wreck or the safest, most luxurious car in the world. These facts considered, why should an owner of a total ruin-on-wheels, who has just finished watching Formula 1 and wants to follow in the footsteps of Michael Schumacher, really care? Especially if he's an 18 year-old who has only just gotten a driver's license. And here we get to the second problem: the teaching system in our driving schools. Up until May, a driving course in Poland was nearly twice as short as in Germany, for example. But the worst thing is that our drivers-to-be spend most of their time practicing parking techniques rather than learning how to drive in the city. Of course, such a thing as driving on a highway can't even be found in the syllabus.
Luckily, this month, changes were introduced to the driver's education system, increasing the number of hours one must spend on the roads instead of the parking lot. Maybe in a few years time this will alter the horrendous car accident statistics, for which we, unfortunately, have no equal in Europe.
It's not that we lack some gene that makes a good driver or that we are completely untalented in this field. No, it's just that we don't have any incentives that encourage us to drive more safely and better. In the USA, for example, the more accidents you have, and the more reckless your driving is, the more you pay. And it's not just the tickets. Your insurance company raises your premiums. Similar rules apply to your vehicle - the safer the car you drive, the less you pay. In Poland, however, the law doesn't allow for any increases in insurance premiums or fines for those who frequently cause accidents or even get tickets on a regular basis. We all pay the same amount, which means that we all sponsor the road-hogs' adventures and their consequences.
And as far as cars go, it doesn't matter whether you drive a 20 year-old wreck or the safest, most luxurious car in the world. These facts considered, why should an owner of a total ruin-on-wheels, who has just finished watching Formula 1 and wants to follow in the footsteps of Michael Schumacher, really care? Especially if he's an 18 year-old who has only just gotten a driver's license. And here we get to the second problem: the teaching system in our driving schools. Up until May, a driving course in Poland was nearly twice as short as in Germany, for example. But the worst thing is that our drivers-to-be spend most of their time practicing parking techniques rather than learning how to drive in the city. Of course, such a thing as driving on a highway can't even be found in the syllabus.
Luckily, this month, changes were introduced to the driver's education system, increasing the number of hours one must spend on the roads instead of the parking lot. Maybe in a few years time this will alter the horrendous car accident statistics, for which we, unfortunately, have no equal in Europe.
