Traffic cameras kept busy in first week of operation
ALMOST 3,000 people were caught by the traffic cameras in their first week of official snapping, the police revealed yesterday – roughly translating to one offence every four minutes.
Director of Traffic Police, Theodoros Achilleos yesterday told the Mail that, “652,000 vehicles have passed through cameras from October 11 to 18. Of these, 2,706 committed an offence, which is less than one per cent.”
He added that the majority of violations were speeding and jumping red lights.
Most of the infringements took place at Nicosia’s ‘Kalispera’ traffic lights at the entrance and exit of the highway, and on the Amathus – Arsinoe Hotel road in Limassol.
Costas Papadopoulos, who is in charge of the photo-radar system, explained that once an offender has been identified, he or she will be notified by the police, “in not more than a week. They will have 15 days to pay the fine, otherwise it will increase by 50 per cent. If the fine has not been paid after 30 days, court proceedings will be initiated”.
Police yesterday also announced an extension to their road safety clampdown outside schools to ensure that students get to and from school safely.
The campaign, which began on September 11 and was due to end on September 30, will now run until the end of the year. It covers public and private high schools, lyceums and technical schools.
Figures up to the end of September show 171 cases of motorcyclists/moped riders not wearing crash helmets, 54 displayed no number plates, 42 had no driving licence, 26 no valid insurance and 23 were illegally carrying extra passengers.
There were a total of 331 transgressions, most of which (89) occurred in Limassol.
“Special attention is being paid to schools where there have been problems in the past, and we are also on the lookout for underage drivers.” said police spokeswoman Chrystalla Demetriou.
Nearly 300 school buses have also been checked after public outrage back in April following an undercover television investigation showing young schoolchildren being ferried back and forth on dangerous and unlicensed vehicles.
Buses were found to be old, dirty, overcrowded and not fitted with seatbelts
After further investigation, they were found to have no MOTs, road tax or correct registration documents.
Of the 280 buses checked in September, only three, in Paphos, were found to have a problem.
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