There were 703 road accidents in Russia over the weekend.

Over the past weekend, on August 2-3, 703 road accidents occurred on Russian roads, in which 75 people were killed and 939 injured. This was reported to Izvestia on August 4 by the State Traffic Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. 71 of the dead were passengers and drivers, the ministry said.

As a result of 128 accidents, 42 of which occurred at pedestrian crossings and 86 outside their area of operation, four pedestrians were killed, and another 126 were injured in various degrees of severity. 24 young pedestrians were among the injured, while 17 of them were injured while crossing the roadway in unintended places.
23 accidents involving buses were recorded, in which three people were killed, and 38 more road users, including four children, required medical attention. The reason for 10 bus accidents were traffic violations committed by their drivers.

129 accidents involving minors were registered over the weekend, in which 144 young road users were injured, including 81 passengers, 16 cyclists and 14 motor transport drivers. Three children were killed: a passenger, a pedestrian and a cyclist.

In the Saratov region, on 399 km of the federal highway R-228 Syzran — Saratov — Volgograd, a passenger car driver drove into the oncoming lane, where he collided with a truck. The driver and passenger of the car were killed in a car accident. The three-year-old daughter of the deceased motorist, who was in the back seat in a child restraint with a seat belt at the time of the collision, was hospitalized with injuries.

In the Republic of Mordovia, a 60-year-old driver of an intercity bus with 48 passengers in the cabin drove off the road and overturned on a regional highway. As a result of the incident, seven bus passengers were sent for outpatient treatment, and three more received one-time medical care at the scene. According to the preliminary reason, the accident occurred due to a speed discrepancy with specific traffic conditions.

In the Republic of Udmurtia, an intoxicated driver of a Gazelle truck ran over a 13-year-old schoolgirl who, in violation of traffic regulations, was walking along the edge of the roadway in the same direction as him. When a danger arose, the driver did not slow down to stop the vehicle, and the young pedestrian died.

In the Novgorod region, an intoxicated crossover driver also hit two cyclists — an elderly man and his nine-year-old granddaughter, who were moving along the right edge of the roadway in the same direction. As a result of the accident, both cyclists died, and another girl, a bicycle passenger (2 years old), who was in a child seat mounted on the frame of her grandfather's bike, was injured and ended up in the hospital.

The State Traffic Inspectorate draws the attention of drivers to ensuring safety when overtaking vehicles, especially in places permitted for this purpose. When starting overtaking, make sure that the distance and speed for it are sufficient and fully allow you to safely complete the maneuver without creating an emergency situation for yourself and other road users.

"We urge road users not to remain indifferent to the problem of drunkenness at the wheel and promptly inform the police about drivers who behave inappropriately on the road, driving drunk. Employees of the State Traffic Inspectorate are ready to take all necessary operational measures to respond to such reports," said Police Colonel Anton Belan, deputy head of the Department for Road Safety Promotion and Prevention of child traffic injuries at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

The traffic police remind parents of the need to be more attentive to their children. It is absolutely necessary to use retroreflective elements on their clothes to improve the visibility of young pedestrians and cyclists in the evening.

Let's live: Russians will die less in road accidents

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has prepared a draft "Strategy for improving road safety"

"Parents should constantly have an explanatory conversation with their children about the rules of behavior on the street, safe rides on personal mobility equipment, bicycles and scooters, paying special attention to the inadmissibility of minors under the age of 14 traveling on public roads, as well as the need to dismount when crossing the roadway at a pedestrian crossing," Belan said..

Earlier that day, a bus collided with a freight train in the Leningrad region. One person was killed in the accident, and 16 bus passengers were injured.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.