Authorities Assess Policies after Four Weekend Road Deaths in South

Authorities are bent on finding ways to boost road safety as it becomes clear that the year’s accident record has been appalling.

The year so far has seen 38 accidents and 43 deaths, compared with 26 accidents and 28 deaths in 2023, police said. 

Prevention of such incidents hinges on education and awareness, police have stressed, as well as conducting the appropriate research.

Drivers’ education and developing a conscience about safe practices needs to start in schools, Vafeades said. He said driving schools must address the latter aspect during drivers’ education courses for offenders.

He also said that the traffic department needs to increase its management of roads on weekends, since both of the latest fatal accidents occurred overnight on Saturday.

Later on Monday, Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis said the government “has no other option” but to “tighten the measures it is taking on road safety issues”, and thus have more intense and more frequent police patrols.

Speaking after a House human rights committee meeting, he said Cyprus “has to acquire a culture of road safety”, and that this must “start with parents, teachers, professors and the state itself”.

He added that “everything will be evaluated from scratch” in relation to the potential implementation of harsher penalties for those found to be breaking the law on the road.

Additionally, he spoke of plans to create a “driver training school” with the aim of improving the quality of drivers on Cypriot roads.

He said the school will be open to those who have either had their licence suspended or those who have accumulated penalty points and wish to reduce the number they have accumulated, as well as the elderly.
The four fatalities over the weekend were all of young people under 21.

Martinos Marti, Eirinaios Adamou (both 20) and Nikolas Koutsou (18) died in an accident on the Dherynia to Frenaros road in Famagusta in the early hours of Sunday, shortly after midnight.

Another 20-year-old, Eirini Kontogiorgou, died in Engomi in Nicosia, also on Sunday, around 3am, while riding as a passenger in a small rental vehicle driven by a 20-year-old, with seven young people in total on board.

“Police are waiting to conduct final examinations before offering their conclusions,” police spokesman Giorgos Milis told the CyBC.

In the first accident a 44-year-old driver with his 15-year-old son as passenger, had collided with the car driven by the 20-year-old Adamou in Dherynia under circumstances which are being investigated.

The 44-year-old had been making a right turn into his driveway at the time of the impact and both passengers in that vehicle were wearing seatbelts, Milis said.

The man’s car had been flung against a tree and caught on fire as a result of the impact but both occupants escaped unscathed.

It was not yet possible to provide details on whether the young men in the second vehicle had been wearing seatbelts, he said.

As for the accident in Nicosia, it was evident that no one in the backseat, where Kontogiorgou was seated, could have been wearing seatbelts as the car was overloaded, police said.

The way to prevent such tragedies is though education and a change in culture, ex-traffic police chief Andreas Papa told the CyBC.

“Even though we have been saying the same things for years, parents and others need to impress upon young people that discipline is needed on the road,” Papas, who among other actions campaigns for traffic safety at army camps, said.

“Driving at night is far more dangerous than driving during the day,” he said, “especially in inclement weather”, and young drivers must be made more aware of this.

It must be broadcast that driving at night is two to three times as dangerous as driving during the day for obvious reasons, but also because with fewer vehicles on the road, drivers are likely to drive at increased speeds, he said.

Additionally, driving under the influence of alcohol needs to be addressed with shared responsibility and passengers being assertive in not permitting drunk friends to drive.

“Road fatalities worldwide show that two thirds are of backseat passengers, which does away with the myth that seat belts are not needed in the back,” he added.

Additional measures that could be taken to curb the fatal accident rates are though insurance companies, which can introduce higher premiums for inexperienced drivers driving after midnight, or laws which forbid novice drivers from transporting others, Papas said.

An autopsy was carried out on Monday on the bodies of the three young men who died in Famagusta which found they died of multiple injuries, while the 44-year-old involved was arrested, questioned by police and released.

Elsewhere, for the Nicosia accident the 20-year-old driver was arrested as per a court warrant and held for questioning. The young man had been given an alcotest which registered a 55μg instead of the 9μg allowed for novice drivers.

Source: Cyprus Mail