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Death of an anachronism: Horse carts banned from Romanian roadways
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There is nothing more bucolic when traveling in far off lands than to share the roadway with a horse and cart. When I first came across this scene somewhere in Romania in the early 1990s, it was as though I had traveled back in time. I had no idea that people in Europe still traveled in such a style in the 20th century. Truth be told, they still do today--but at least not in Romania anymore. A new law prohibits horses and carts from the country's main arteries. The reason is that they are responsible for 10% of the nation's auto accidents.
I witnessed this firsthand when I was hitchhiking through Romania in 1991. A Hungarian family that picked me up had hit a horse just a few miles earlier. They would hit another one a week later when leaving the country.
The problem with the new law, however, is that the horse and cart are still a primary form of transport for the country folk who live outside of the larger cities. In fact, for many Romanians it's their only form of transport. That explains why there are 740,000 horse carts registered in Romania according to a recent BBC article.
While such a law will certainly decrease the amount of accidents on the road, it's going to make life a whole lot harder for the struggling populace. And, more selfishly from a travel perspective, I will be sad to see the anachronistic horse-cart-and-Mercedes spectacle disappear from the roadways of Romania.
Related: My Bloody Romania
(Photo by cashewnuts via Flickr)
Filed under: Romania, Transportation
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
latimeri May 23rd 2008 1:30PM
Leif. you are very right and I enjoy hear a man speaking truth. the auto-car cannot be more importen as some else use the road for traspotation.
Jeff Jun 12th 2008 11:53PM
I cant believe this, you want to ban horse and carts because some people have no bussiness driving a car and cant help but to keep running into horses? People have be using horses to tend to the fields and work there land not only in Romania but here in America, Just look at the Amish who have been doing that for 100's of years. I am sorry but people have no damn business driving a car if they keep running into a 2000 draft horse, This person also failed to mention that most of the drivers were drunk, but hey its ok to drink and drive as long as your not running into horses uh? some laws Romania has wouldnt want to live there
alex Sep 24th 2009 6:29PM
Hi from Romania to everybody :)
I know this is an old article and maybe nobody will even read this but i have to clear things out for y'all.
Horse driven carts are what Romanian drivers fear the most. More then 90% of our road network has only one lane each way. Imagine driving at 50 miles an hour, at night, and you spot a cart just 100 meters or less in front of you (almost none of them has any kind of signaling, no lights, nothing) and there is another car coming the other way. You don't have time to break, and in Romania there are trees on the side of the road on ANY road. You can't just steer right and go into a corn field. Your choices are : death by hitting the cart, death by hitting the car coming the other way or death by hitting a tree. I had a couple of these "near death" experiences both as a drivers and as a passenger and I can say you guys have absolutely no idea how dangerous these things are.
And a couple of horses cost just as much as a 1990's Toyota pick-up truck, but most cart driving folk will get a pick-up because you can't drive a car drunk. yeah, did i forget to mention that everyone driving a cart after say, 5 pm, is stone drunk. The thing is, the horses know their own way home ;)
And carts were not banned from all roads. Only from european and national roads. You can still drive a cart on a county road, and most villages are connected by these roads, not by those on which the carts are banned on.
2 years after this law was passed people still die every day on the roads because of horse driven carts. It's easy to judge when you are a world away
Leif Nov 20th 2007 11:22AM
Sure, perhaps carts were INVOLVED in the cited accidents, but are there any figures on how much over the speed limit the car driver was going at the time or what non-driving related task (stereo, mobile phone, cigarette, girl on sidewalk, admiring oneself in the rearview mirror which otherwise goes unused) the driver was engaged with when he ran into the cart? To blame the slow moving and steady carts on traffic accidents is like blaming a cargo ship when a speed boat runs into the side of it.
Never mind the ramifications on the people that use horse and cart as a basic means of transport and livelihood, removing carts from the road will just mean that drivers will drive even faster and therefore simply die more violently when they drive into a tree at 150KPH in a thick fog, on sheer ice while texting their mates.