REPORT: Bored Bulgarians engaging in Russian Road Roulette
One of Russia's most popular exports has been its version of roulette – you know, the kind where the player usually closes his eyes during the game and someone has a good chance of ending up dead. In this case it's being played in Sofia, Bulgaria, and the jouers are drivers and motorcyclists running red lights.
The point of the game is to get through a red light at high speed without hitting another car or pedestrian. Bets are said to have climbed as high as €5,000 ($7,370 U.S.), and even folks on the street are said to have placed bets and then watched the intersection to see if anyone bought the farm.
The first fatalities came in June, when a motorcyclist hit an onlooker. The Bulgarian police have been trying to stop the action, but it's hard to stay ahead of text messages among all those intersections in the capital. Be careful on the streets in Bulgaria, folks, and watch out for anyone yelling "Di di mao!" Hat tip to Andrew!
[Source: Reuters via RPMGo | Image credit: Emil Manolov via CC2.0]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Steven 6:38PM (11/02/2009)
This sounds like a job for active speed bumps. Bumps go up when the light is red.
Voila, problem solved.
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Steven 6:39PM (11/02/2009)
Unless Vwodka is involved, in which case it will just be considered a bonus.
UCJR 6:41PM (11/02/2009)
Stuff like this never ceases to amaze me. I suggest that these same people looking for a thrill play a game of real Russian Roulette... with a gun with a clip, not a six-shooter.
Pow. Every time.
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keep the change 6:42PM (11/02/2009)
Russian roulette is when you put the gun to your own head, not to the heads of innocent people who happen by.
This would be tried as first degree murder in the case of a death.
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Clavius 6:43PM (11/02/2009)
This is just damn scary. I'm assuming that poverty is high in the area hence people willing to litteraly place their lives on the line for this. I hope they are able to put a stop to this sooner rather than later.
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keep the change 11:50PM (11/02/2009)
Poverty? Is that how you explain kids endangering others with reckless stunts? Poverty?
WTF?
fmwso 1:14AM (11/03/2009)
Wow please get your facts straight. What does poverty have to do with reckless drivers? I've seen people driving recklessly with super cars and they're rich enough, so why are they putting themselves in danger? Come on, your assumptions are way wrong.
Marc-O 10:38AM (11/03/2009)
@ Fmwso
No need to jump at Clavius' throat, he didn't say anything bad or wrong, his comment was pretty respectful and sensible - the article says people do it for the money, upwards of $7,000 - so the poorer the people, the more doing something like this would seem appealing to them, to the point where they'd disregard other people's safety and lives. I think you made his comment mean something completely different...
Silly Pickle 6:48PM (11/02/2009)
And that part of the world wonders why they've never won a major (recent) war...these must be the same kids who wear 5 polo shirts, collars up, hair all spiked up and fake tanned to death. Stupid is as stupid does...sheesh.
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Al Terego 11:45PM (11/02/2009)
Your comments are the most stupid of all. How can you even relate war and fashion to running red lights and causing death? How?
fmwso 1:11AM (11/03/2009)
Care to explain what fashion and war has to do with people driving recklessly? I just don't see how they have something to do with people's driving. I see people driving recklessly in America with 100K cars and yet they're rich enough.
martin 6:54PM (11/02/2009)
not cool...
not cool at all, guys.
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B3astofthe3ast 7:06PM (11/02/2009)
Well, thats one way to get those adrenalines rushing.
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Xa 8:12PM (11/02/2009)
'and watch out for anyone yelling "Di di mao!"'
what, lots of vietnamese roaming the streets of bulgaria these days?
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Jakesnake1294 9:39AM (11/03/2009)
"and the jouers are drivers and motorcyclists running red lights"
Apparently the French are in on this too. The Bulgarians must be upset about all of these strange foreign drivers endangering their streets.
Ray 8:32PM (11/02/2009)
The people on the sidewalks should be allowed to get together on one side of the street and shoot at them.
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LoneWolf 8:43PM (11/02/2009)
This is why you do drugs, people.......to keep yourself away from such dangerous stuff..
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bobepinette 9:25PM (11/02/2009)
Please Autoblog this is NOT the kind of thing that should be discussed or mentioned ! Just the mere mention of this dumb stunt is enough justification for these empty-skulls to carry-on doing this.
Auto-related newsbit? Yes.
Stupid? Yes.
Ergo, does not belong on smart blogs like this one.
Don't "spread" garbage; it's pollution.
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Venom 9:35PM (11/02/2009)
First these retards are driving around with wild animals that can jump out of the car and kill innocent people, now they are driving recklessly and running over people.
Nice.
Godless bunch of people...
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daleam 10:39PM (11/02/2009)
Awesome title for the post. :-D
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