Romania's killer roads
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 22 August 2019
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Everybody in Romania knows someone who has died in a road accident. The country has the highest road death rate in the European Union – twice the EU average and more than three times that in the UK. A young businessman, Stefan Mandachi, has built a metre long stretch of motorway near his home in the rural north-east of the country, as a visual protest against political inaction and corruption. For Assignment,Tessa Dunlop travels to one of Romania’s poorest regions, Moldova, to meet this new champion of road safety, and the families who have paid the highest price for the country’s poor transport networks. Producer, John Murphy (Image: In Romania horse and carts share the roads with fast moving cars – not always happily. Credit : BBC/John Murphy)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks for downloading this program. I'm Tessed Unlop and I've been visiting and working in Romania since the early 90s. |
| 0:07.2 | And increasingly I've felt very afraid on the roads. In fact, I know of people who've been killed on Romania's |
| 0:13.8 | roads so when I heard of this entrepreneur in Suu Kyava who was doing something |
| 0:18.8 | about it I was back out there like a shot. If you're a teacher, |
| 0:25.0 | if you're a teacher, leave your children a great time for another 15 minutes. |
| 0:32.0 | If you're a mason, put your |
| 0:34.4 | trowel aside for 15 minutes. If you're a driver, stop your car and use your |
| 0:39.2 | hazard lights for 15 minutes. If you want to leave Romania, stay for 15 more minutes. |
| 0:45.0 | With that rallying cry, a businessman from Romania's Moldova region launched a social media campaign to persuade the powers that be |
| 0:55.6 | to build more motorways. In fact, Moldova's first ever motorway. |
| 1:01.3 | This is my office. So, we've just just to explain we've just come |
| 1:05.6 | up inside your new hotel it's called Mandaki. This is my surname. Yeah it's a bit |
| 1:09.7 | like sort of a Trump narrative this isn't it? You got your hotel with your name? Oh yes right |
| 1:14.0 | look at this one. Who is there? Oh you've got a picture of Donald Trump on your wall. This guy inspired me. |
| 1:20.8 | Not when I was young, when I was teenager, when I studied, you know, but I loved what he said because he told us as you think, think big. |
| 1:32.0 | Okay, so in other words, next steps, |
| 1:34.7 | Stefan Mandaki for president. |
| 1:36.5 | No, no, no, no, no, of course not. |
| 1:37.9 | I don't like to make politics. |
| 1:40.3 | I like to be an entrepreneur. To inspire people as an entrepreneur. |
| 1:44.4 | As well as his swanky new hotel and spa, |
| 1:50.6 | Stephen Mandaki is the founder of a fast food chain, Spartan, now with 43 restaurants |
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