Deterred by traffic crackdown?

UNFAZED by stiffer fines, wayward drivers continue to flaunt the law and break every rule in the book, police statistics suggest.

Over the past weekend alone, more than 1,200 motorists were caught violating one traffic regulation or another, paying the price in either fines or penalty points. As always, the most common transgression was speeding. Although police have stepped up their campaign in a bid to curb the high fatality rate on the roads, these figures indicate that Cypriots find it hard to part with their old habits.

So much for the theory of deterrence. But having your licence suspended – deterrent or not – is an inescapable fact once you “earn” the maximum number of penalty points. People amassing 12 points must go to court, which will then decide on a case-by-case basis whether the offences warrant taking a driver off the streets.

In addition to being banned for penalty points, a person could also face other punishment – for example, jail if they were found to be driving recklessly under the influence of alcohol. The two measures are not mutually exclusive, and that is why the decision for suspending licences is taken by the court.

However, in case someone is put out of commission for a certain number of months, the penalty points accumulated previously will be erased and the driver then gets to start with a clean slate. That is, assuming he or she has not posed a danger to others as a motorist.
Where the 12-point threshold is not reached, the penalty points garnered for a particular offence at any given time (typically 2 or 3 points) are deleted from the file three years after the offence. So for someone with a bad track record, it’s far easier to get into trouble than not.

Police spokesman Demetris Demetriou yesterday could not confirm press reports claiming that some 10,000 drivers were on the verge of temporarily losing their licences. He added that police were doing all they could to prevent accidents and save lives.
The force has its work cut in the summer months, when thousands of tourists descend on the island, usually converging in the Famagusta district. In order to cope, police allocate extra manpower to the area. According to Phileleftheros, because of the perennial shortage of staff, graduates just out of the police academy are to be immediately assigned to traffic duties.

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.