Regional development minister Ivan Shishkov has announced a road safety reform in an interview. Motorways will get smart early-warning systems, and a single digital control body will watch traffic in real time. The reform needs changes to the law and should be finished by the middle of next year.

On Wednesday, at a quick-questions session in a parliamentary committee, Shishkov said the ministry is drafting the terms for such a system on the Trakia motorway. The session began with a minute of silence for the victims of the two chain-reaction crashes near the Zimnitsa junction the day before.

How it all started: Regional ministry prepares brief for smart transport system on Trakia motorway

The Road Infrastructure Agency will commission the design and building of the smart transport system. The draft 2027 budget includes money for it, but the minister did not say how much.

In the new body, the toll authority, the transport ministry and the interior ministry will work together to watch the road in real time. The toll system, until now a tool for issuing fines, will become a system for managing traffic and safety.

Shishkov said the Zimnitsa crashes may have two causes: drivers going too fast for the conditions, and a lack of systems to warn them in real time. He said no one can know whether the crashes could have been prevented, because the drivers were clearly going too fast for the conditions.

Citing early checks by experts, the minister said the road surface and markings on the stretch are in satisfactory condition. The stretch was last partly repaired at the end of 2023, when the work was also paid for.

Shishkov said what should have been done in the past is a separate question. He said the ministry has already prepared and is now starting work, because smart systems are needed that warn of all kinds of problems on a motorway, as they do around the world.

The minister rejected criticism from the opposition. He called it an attempt to shift blame onto the people who ran the sector for years. He said Bulgaria in practice has not a single motorway that is fully finished and fully functional.

Shishkov also said new motorways can be built fast if there is money for design and private capital through concessions.