About twenty kilometers from Podgorica, on the main road to Kolašin, is the town of Dromira, which has a bad reputation for a large number of traffic accidents, many of which ended in fatal outcomes.
Why was this apparently relaxed, real, and technically solid stock fatal for as many as 12 people in the last four years?
Experts say that the reason is precisely its relaxing characteristic!
"On the part of the road through Dromira, all indicators of traffic safety improve compared to the previous section that approaches through the canyon, but practice has shown that their joint interaction in some inexplicable way results in a high chance of an accident with serious consequences," he told " News" Milenko Čabarkapa, M.Sc., court expert in the field of traffic.
"After a hard drive through the Morača canyon, Dromira comes as an apparent relief. The road straightens and the vistas become wider, so the driver instinctively relaxes after the tense drive through the canyon where he was under much greater tension due to various challenges such as tunnels, curves, galleries , potential landslides and the like", explains Čabarkapa, who expressed curiosity and the need to devote himself to a scientific explanation of the Dromira phenomenon.
Goran Asanović, the legendary Montenegrin motorist, agrees with this, and he gave his perspective on this phenomenon.
"After the twists and turns and those painful sections through the canyon, that Dromira comes as a kind of relaxation for the driver, and it should be added that his concentration is further reduced by the knowledge that he has arrived within reach of the house or at least the entrance to the plain. Because of that more leisurely driving and speeding up on the roads that open up, accidents happen," says Asanović.
Since there is a deep chasm at the very edge of the road that the driver cannot see from the car, losing control of the car ends in disaster.
Čabarkapa adds that there is also the factor of a sudden increase in air temperature, and that all these elements have a negative effect on the driver's psychophysical ability, but
at the same time, they create the illusion that he possesses a higher than average ability.
"In the driver's delusion that he has greater ability, while in reality it is actually less, we should look for the reason why he cannot solve situations much less complex than those on the previous section of the road through the canyon".
This theory is confirmed by the fact that almost all accidents on this part of the road happen to drivers descending from the canyon. Driving along this route, our team, in the company of this renowned traffic expert, was once again convinced that there are no technical irregularities on the roadway that actively influence the incident to occur.
"What I see tells me that all the technical elements of the road are in accordance with the regulations. Here we have a flat valley route without a pronounced longitudinal slope, as opposed to a canyon route with large slopes and sharp changes in profile", says Čabarkapa.
Goran Asanović confirms that he did not notice any irregularities on the road that could directly cause loss of control, but appeals to drivers to be especially careful in that part of the road and to reduce speed.
"This especially applies to the situation when it rains after a long dry period, because that part of the road is very slippery, and then the driver is only one unmeasured step away from the accident", explains the well-known motorist.
However, the drivers themselves, in their desire to reach their destination as soon as possible, sometimes make disastrously bad decisions when it comes to overtaking, probably unaware that just a few meters from them lurks a harsh cliff that has already claimed too many lives.
Improve passive safety
"The security situation in Dromira can be improved in terms of reducing the consequences, but I don't think this phenomenon can be eliminated," says Čabarkapa.
"Since human error cannot be ruled out, the traffic safety system should be adapted to that error, to the vulnerability of the human body, and thus ultimately reduce human fatalities."
Čabarkapa indicates that the traffic safety management of Montenegro would have to register this phenomenon and give it the attention it deserves, so as to try to reduce the consequences of these accidents that will continue to occur.
"It can be done in two directions. The first is acting on the source of the dangerous situation. "In my opinion, it is a driver who, after leaving the canyon, feels that the road elements are more comfortable and technically more comfortable, increases his speed and is unable to solve the first incident he encounters in this part of the road at that increased speed," says Čabarkapa.
"This can be solved by installing fixed radars to measure speed, with the fact that drivers should be made aware in advance that such control will be carried out in this part of the road. It would be an indiscriminate control that would include every driver, every drive on this stretch and it would result in a reduction in speed".
"The second direction to act on is passive road safety. It would be best to install metal bumpers with shock absorbers in two belts, and other systems that would prevent the vehicle from landing down a steep cliff after the incident, which actually brings fatal consequences."
"This would lead to the attribute that a road should have, which is the so-called 'forgiving road'. The road should have those technical elements that, based on the inevitability of the driver's mistake, will forgive that mistake in a way that will prevent death and serious injury to people," says Čabarkapa.
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