Why the needless carnage?
If we are going to continue to see road deaths with the speed we have seen them since January 1, by the end of this year least 121 people will have been killed on Cyprus roads. This figure would mean that in 2007, 35 more people would be killed than in 2006, 19 more than in 2005 and four more than in 2004. However, apparently, it is not going to happen.
The government says it is 100 per cent committed to bringing change to our driving habits and is even thinking about bringing foreign experts in to work on the problem, while the police claim that they will exercise zero tolerance towards traffic offenders, especially those driving under the influence of alcohol. But is it really possible?
If the police’s promise simply means that from now on our policemen will breathalyse as many drivers as they did over the Christmas and New Year period, it would seem to indicate that by the end of the year at least 7,000 people will be charged with drink driving. And if the Cypriot courts follow the police and show no mercy, this means that by the end of the year 7,000 people will be jailed, fined £1,000 each and have their driving licences revoked.
I fully support this idea but I can’t imagine there is enough space in the prison to house this number of drunk drivers. Unless, of course, they are put in a queue. Since the capacity of the Central Prison is now around 400, if the authorities choose this option, just the 2007 traffic offenders will have to wait up to 17 years to be allowed to serve their sentences. (Meanwhile, I hope they will have to walk everywhere because they will have no driving licence. And then, maybe they will start pushing for improvements to the public transport system.)
But what about all those other people who are still waiting to be informed of being caught by traffic cameras while over-speeding and committing all other kinds of minor offences?
At present, we have 40 cameras working in this country and the system is absolutely overloaded, with only about 25 per cent of fines delivered. OK, I know that it is only a pilot project but even bearing this in mind, are 450 cameras our ultimate goal? I have heard somebody commenting recently that the Turkish Cypriot traffic cameras are more efficient than Greek Cypriot. “It is simple. We have only five so it is easy to control them,” she said. Quite a realistic approach. “Small is better if you can’t control big,” my grandma used to say. Hence I am in Cyprus, the land that I can travel around in one day.
Joking aside, somehow, it seems that whatever the government and police’s efforts to clamp down on careless drivers are they will not bring any effects unless the whole approach to driving in Cyprus changes.
It is enough to see the recent study into driving behaviour and the attitudes of young drivers. While one in ten young Cypriot drivers (aged between 18 and 25) have been involved in an accident when someone was killed or seriously injured, most of them say they think it is OK to take risks on the road that put themselves, other drivers or pedestrians in danger because a) 62 per cent of them consider themselves good drivers; b) 25 per cent enjoy taking risks; c) 24 per cent thinks their car’s safety features would take care of any loss of vehicle control (I really like this one!); and 17 per cent said that their friends viewed them as risk takers and they enjoyed having this image. What is more, the majority of our young drivers take only between 10 and 20 hours of driving lessons before hitting the road. How much experience can they really gain during this period?
Usually I hate being patronising but after reading that within the course of ten days three young men died because of stupidity, either theirs or somebody else’s, I will allow myself a treat. Let’s face the reality: the majority of Cypriots succumb to skilful bullying and hate to part with money, especially when it is not being spent on them. Hence here are the ways of stopping this pointless bloodshed on badly lit and awfully signed-posted pavement-less Cypriot roads: make drivers go through 120 hours of driving practice before they can take a test, increase penalties, introduce immediate measures such as revoking a licence and fining ridiculously enormous sums of money, even for just speaking on a mobile phone when driving, finally confiscate cars and charge hundreds for returning them. Then, we will see.
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