The Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Archil Talakvadze, in his talk on air on GDS about the new traffic regulations stated: "Approximately 660 people die as a result of car accidents throughout the year and more than 10,000 receive injuries. There are 26 black spots in Tbilisi alone where the majority of car accidents occur."

FactCheck

took interest in the accuracy of the statement.

The complete statistics covering car accidents in 2015 have not yet been published on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia. Therefore, FactCheck

used the statistics published by the NGO Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads which requested the aforementioned data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs beforehand as public information.

According to this information, there were 6,432 car accidents in 2015 as a result of which 9,187 people received injuries and 602 people were killed. The number of car accidents was 5,510 in 2014 with 8,045 injured and 514 dead.

Of note is that the number of car accidents showed an annual decrease from 2008 to 2011 although starting to rise from 2012. The number of people who received injuries as a result of car accidents also began to increase after 2011. It is important to also note that the number of deaths did not increase in the period of 2011-2014 in spite of the greater number of car accidents. This number, however, did grow in 2015 with 91 more people dying in car accidents in 2015 than in 2014. This number is quite significant with a growth in the number of deaths from car accidents never before having been so high (FactCheck has previously written about this topic).

Graph 1:

 Dynamics of Car Accidents in Georgia in the Period of 2008-2015

FactCheck

also verified Archil Talakvadze’s statement in regard to the so-called ‘black spots’ in Tbilisi, marking the places where car accidents most frequently occur, and requested the list of these locations from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

According to the information of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there were 11 black spots marked by the patrol police in 2015. The number and location of the black spots in Tbilisi vary from year to year but their number mostly fluctuates within the margin of 9 to 12. At least 45 car accidents are registered at these places per one year time period.

Table 1:

 Number of Car Accidents at Black Spots in 2015

Location	2015
Kakheti Highway	127
Left Bank	107
Aghmashenebeli Alley	98
Right Bank	87
Tsereteli Avenue	83
Chavchavadze Avenue	67
Dadiani Street	66
Guramishvili Avenue	66
Vazha-Pshavela Avenue	66
Gorgasali Street	55
Rustaveli Avenue	47

As illustrated by the table, the most (127) car accidents in 2015 were registered on the Kakheti Highway.

Conclusion

According to the information of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there was a total of 6,432 car accidents registered in 2015. As a result of these accidents, 602 people were killed and 9,187 received injuries. The number of deaths from car accidents increased considerably in 2015.

In regard to the so-called black spots marking the places where car accidents most frequently occur in Tbilisi, the Ministry of Internal Affairs identified those 11 locations with the greatest number of car accidents according to the data of 2015 which is based on information from the patrol police.

FactCheck concludes that Archil Talakvadze’s statement is MOSTLY TRUE.