Polish Road Outlaws

I'm currently bit occupied with helping on parent's house construction site. Because I'm driving occasionally I have opportunity to observe really dramatic situation on Polish roads. Few days ago I had to wait in a traffic jam on national road No 6 because some mad biker decided to overtake in place, where it was prohibited. According to police estimation he reached about 200-220 kmh when he hit two cars. Result of that accident was two damaged cars, his motorbike broken into two parts and his sudden death. He was in his late 20's, but still too stupid to acknowledge he actually is mortal.

Driving on Polish roads isn't easy. Polish drivers are very good generally, but they forget that the faster they drive the more often sh** happens. Additionally, police is not interested in making roads safer, but in making money out of fines. There's a lot of speed cameras on roads, but drivers know those spots. They use GPS maps which keep them updated and alerted if needed. Police got solution for that. Not marked police cars are here to catch some road-hogs. But those are smarter. They use CB Radios to ask oncoming drivers whether rad is clear or not. If some reckless driver is so unlucky, to be caught, he will soon get opportunity, to give bribe. Police stopped being interested in bringing drivers back to order. They just interested in making money out of it. Just like company.

When you drive on national road with one lane each direction and hard shoulder, you will soon experience something irrational. You better stay focused all the time, because you will see oncoming car on your lane every few minutes. You drive 90, others drive 140 - nothing exceptional! They are aggressive, selfish, intolerant and undervalued. Don't they realise that being in constant rush is stressful and unhealthy?

Let's go back to enforcement in Poland. Lowest fine 25€ is for speeding by 10 km/h. While highest is only 125€ for speeding by 50 km/h and more. All citizens, rich or poor, are treated equally. In Sweden, as I remember, police asks tax office about ones past year income, and they fine driver accordingly. You can your driving license for speeding Germany claims to fine drivers exceeding speed over 50 km/h by 240€ fine and one month of driving license suspension! France is even better. According to franceguide.com you can get fined with '15.250€ for causing slight injuries and suspension of driving licence for a maximum of three years'. Fines for speeding over 30, 40 and 50 km/h are up to 135, 750 and 1500€ respectively.

Yes, Polish drivers drive carefully, respectfully and even better than locals while they are abroad. Why situation is totally different in Poland? They just don't have to care too much. Poland is aspiring to be 'western' country, but picture on roads convince me it's still more 'eastern'. There's one good think about Polish drivers: They are still better, safer and more responsible than Bosnian drivers.