Anarchy Reigns on Romania’s Highways : Culture: The ouster of the totalitarian regime entices nation’s drivers to ignore traffic laws. The death toll has more than doubled from a year ago.

Democracy in Romania has brought death to its highways.

Official statistics show that 1,380 people were killed on the roads between December, when Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was swept from power, and the beginning of June.

The figure is more than double the number killed in the same period last year.

Police say many motorists no longer believe they have to obey the law. After years of unquestioning obedience to authority, traffic signs and patrolmen are frequently ignored.

“This is one unfortunate aspect of the people’s interpretation of democracy,” Police Gen. Mihalache Stoleru said. “Suddenly everybody thinks his right to democracy is his right to do what he wishes on the road.”

Under Ceausescu’s authoritarian rule, even minor traffic violations were harshly punished and licenses were often summarily withdrawn.

“There were . . . unjustified cases where licenses were taken away,” Stoleru said. “There won’t be a return to the past when the law was too strictly applied. . . . We want a dialogue with motorists.”

One middle-aged driver said he thought the police should crack down on motorists who flout the rules.

“If they don’t, our roads will become like . . . car-crash derbies,” he said, although he admitted he has broken traffic laws “when the police weren’t looking.”

Bucharest can be a frightening place for pedestrians as well as foreign motorists used to more ordered conduct on the road.

Cars swerve in all directions, frequently in the wrong direction down one-way streets. Drivers wave threateningly at pedestrians foolish enough to cross their path and the pedestrians usually gesture back.

Outside the city, speed limits are rarely observed as drivers aim their cars toward each other, each confident that the other will give way.

Stoleru said, however, that the police “honeymoon” with manic motorists was over.

“Everybody should drive in a civilized way,” he said. “More than half of those killed on the roads so far this year were innocent victims.”

He said traffic police had used their guns 29 times between December and the end of May. Some of the incidents involved drunk drivers who refused to stop.

“This (the use of guns by traffic police) is a new phenomenon . . . (although) drunkenness has always been with us,” said Stoleru, who commands 2,000 patrolmen and traffic officers.

The police are now trying to improve their image. Stoleru said that following the December revolution “police used to sit and watch. . . . People took advantage.”

“We want our men to be able to communicate with everyone . . . to become public relations men as well as policemen.”

The police are changing their army-style uniforms of the Ceausescu years for less-severe garb.

“The old ones . . . made us look like Russian soldiers,” Stoleru said.

As part of the campaign to win hearts and minds, the police are soon to start rewarding “good motorists” by handing out leather wallets bearing the logo “Security and Politeness.”