Disy’s road safety gaffe

ROAD safety campaigns would appear to have had little impact on the ruling party, Disy.

For the front cover of the latest issue of its monthly newsletter, the party chose a photograph of two teenagers speeding along on a scooter; neither is wearing a helmet.

Cyprus has one of the highest road death rates in the world and police have mounted repeated campaigns to get motorbike users to wear helmets.

A spokesman for the police traffic department yesterday confirmed that helmets were a mandatory requirement for riders of scooters, like the one depicted in the Disy leaflet.

A party spokesman was apologetic about the gaffe when it was pointed out to him by the Cyprus Mail yesterday. “Now that you mention it I think you’re right, they should be wearing helmets. No-one thought of it.”

“The picture was taken from an advertising agency’s archives,” he explained, adding that the picture probably would not have looked so good if the riders had been wearing helmets.

The photo was used to plug this weekend’s Disy conference, with the slogan “Forward Only” splashed across it.

Ten thousand of the Disy leaflets have been issued.

Disy said it was now too late to do anything about the picture.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.