ONE IN every two people killed on the roads is under the age of 40, eight out of ten of them were not wearing seat belts and half of all fatal accidents are caused by speed.
These stark statistics are spurring the government to redouble its efforts in targeting schools and army camps in an education campaign aimed at cutting down on the carnage.
“One out of every two people dying on the road is under the age of 40. Over the first three months of 2001 we have lost five compatriots, five acquaintances, five friends under the age of 22,” Said Communications Minister Averoff Neophytou.
According to the most recent police statistics, there have been 21 fatal accidents so far this year, resulting in the deaths of 22 people.
Eighty per cent of those who died had not been wearing seat belts and about half of fatal accidents were caused by speeding, police confirmed.
One national guardsman yesterday told the Cyprus Mail he wished the campaign, which began this year, had been introduced sooner.
George Hadjigregoriou, 19, from Paphos and now serving in the National Guard in Limassol had a narrow escape in a traffic accident early last year. His camp has not yet been included in the campaign.
“I was in a car with a friend of mine from the army when we were both on leave. We went out and had a few drinks and my friend was driving me home when we went round a roundabout too fast and crashed into some parked cars on the side of the road,” he said.
Hadjigregoriou added his friend had been wearing a safety belt, but he had not. “I didn’t think about it at the time. I hit my head a bit but was very lucky. Things could have been much worse.”
He said he knew of many soldiers who drove straight back to camp after a night out. “We have all heard about people getting involved in accidents after something like this. Maybe if we are told as part of a class more information will sink in.”
A high-school teacher, meanwhile, also welcomed the initiative.
The teacher told the Cyprus Mail that most young people saw themselves as invincible. “They may see accidents on the news every day but never think it can happen to them.”
The teacher also blamed parents for giving their children fast cars as soon as they received their licences.
“I’m not an expert of course but if you give a new driver a sports car it seems like you are just asking for trouble. I often hear my students talking about their cars and how fast they went over the weekend. An inexperienced driver may not even realise how fast they are going in a car that is designed especially for this purpose.”
Education Minister Ouranios Ioannides said 160 teachers had been trained and were going round all the schools and army camps with the goal of completing all initial visits by the end of 2001.
The classes at schools take place between 10 and 12 times a year.
Ioannides said that textbooks on the subject had been handed out to all the pupils and that a CD ROM had been prepared in collaboration with a petrol company so that pupils could also learn through working on the computer.
The minister said a road safety park was also being set up in Nicosia in co-operation with the police. “We believe that this programme will begin in the next few months and that all school age children will have the opportunity to visit and learn to deal with situations they could come up against on the road.”
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.
