Today’s protest in front of the City of Skopje’s administrative building, entitled “Koce, give us back our streets,” we believe to be a distasteful political game conducted by the organizers, responded officials from the City of Skopje.
“I really do not understand the need for blatant lying to the public that the City of Skopje or the Mayor are responsible for these accidents. Several of the traffic accidents the organizers of this group blamed for today’s protest occurred due to negligence of drivers, and not because of deficiencies in our transport infrastructure or the lack of horizontal and vertical signaling (pedestrian crossing, marked traffic lanes, traffic signs, traffic lights …) The last two accidents in which cyclists lost their lives, they crossed when the light was red for pedestrians. This is the case with most of these tragic events, which the Ministry of Internal Affairs found by analyzing data, that the most common cause of occurrence of accidents with serious consequences in the City of Skopje is the human factor, ie speeding, disobeying rules, driving under the influence of alcohol and driving a vehicle without a license, ” reacted the City of Skopje.
They say that because of these facts, they do not understand the need for the organizers of these protests to indicate the City of Skopje and the Mayor as the main culprits for such tragic accidents.
“We call on people not to use these tragic events for one’s self-promotion and daily political games,” says the response from the City of Skopje.
