It has been about 7 months that the patrol service has been operating instead of the Traffic Police and the patrol guard service. At the government sitting on January 20, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan presented some details of the results of the patrol service, assessing the activity as positive.

Earlier, the work of the service was also summarized by the RA Police, presenting data exceeding the indicators of previous years. For example, from July 7 to November 28, 2021, 54,291 protocols of administrative offenses were drawn up, compared to 36,186 in the previous year. Drivers traveling in the second lane and on the sidewalk etc. were also fined several times more.

Media.am sent a request to the police to find out the changes in the number of traffic accidents, injuries, and deaths from the beginning of the patrol service (July 2021) to January 2022.

Based on the response of the police, we observed and compared the collisions, deaths, and injuries registered during 2015-2021. The results are presented below.

During the last 7 years, the largest number of accidents in Yerevan have been registered in 2019 (2,172 accidents), followed by 2021 (1,920 accidents). Statistics show that the number of accidents has consistently increased since 2015. The image was broken only in 2020, when the number of accidents was reduced by 618 compared to the previous year, which, of course, is one of the more positive consequences of the coronavirus.

The number of deaths in 2021 is even higher than in 2020. 78 deaths were registered, while in 2021 that number was 74. However, it should be noted that the largest number of deaths in the previous seven years was registered in 2015 (about 95).

The number of injured in 2021 is even higher than the previous year, about 2,434 people were run over. In 2020, this number was 2,005. In this respect, the most unfavorable year is 2019, 2,801 people were injured.

The image over the course of 7 years

Although the Prime Minister and the police positively appraise the activity of the patrol service and speak about the registered violations, it is not reflected much in terms of the number of traffic accidents, injuries, and deaths.

From the day of launching the patrol service until and including January 31, 2022, 1,074 road accidents were registered in Yerevan. Comparing this number with the same period of the previous years (July, August, September, October, November, December and the sum of January of the next year), we will see that the number of accidents has increased compared to the previous year, 2020.

The number of accidents registered during the 7 months of the patrol service activity is also higher compared to the same period of 2015, 2016, 2017. In this respect, the situation has improved only compared to 2018 and 2019.

In terms of the number of deaths, the 7 months of patrol service activity were relatively favorable․ 40 deaths have been registered, which is the smallest number compared to the previous 7 years. The worst indicator in this regard was registered in 2015 when the number of deaths was 66. Let’s remember that we are talking about the total number of 6 months of the given year and January of the next year.

As for the number of injured, in 2021 it was quite large: from the start of the patrol service until January 2022, 1,383 people were injured. This is 77 more than in 2020. In general, the largest number in the last 7 years was registered in 2019 (1,693 injured), then in 2018 (1,564 injured). The smallest number of cases was in 2015 (1,030 injured).

The most accident-prone streets 

Media.am also studied the streets on which accidents have taken place in Yerevan for the last 6 years. We have presented 12 streets on the map, where, according to the RA Police, in 2016-2021, the highest number of accidents had been registered during the year. The number of deaths and injuries is also included.

It turns out that the most accident-prone street of the last 6 years is Isakov Avenue. In the last 6 years, 296 collisions had been registered here, resulting in 19 deaths and about 427 people were injured. Arshakunyats is the second on the list of the most accident-prone streets, the number of collisions here has reached 255, 15 people have died, 300 have been injured.

Hetq Media Factory also studied the most accident-prone streets of the capital for a shorter period. The research singles out several well-founded reasons that make the streets of Yerevan more accident-prone.

Ophelia Simonyan