ALMOST half of serious and fatal road accidents are down to drink driving, the House Crime Committee was told yesterday.
MPs said the alarming data they were given including an increase in 15-year-old alcohol abusers – had pushed them to seek changes in the law that would avert overconsumption of alcohol.
The head of Police Headquarters’ Traffic Department, Demetris Demetriou, informed MPs that even though there had been a reduction in road accidents, those related to alcohol consumption were increasing at an alarming rate. Excessive alcohol consumption, he added, was the main reason for serious and fatal road accidents.
Based on Traffic Department’s statistics, of the 52 road fatalities in 2010, some 25 cases – or 48 per cent – were due to alcohol,” said Demetriou. This percentage seemed to be increasing significantly over the past years; as did the amount of alcohol found in the drivers’ blood.
“What is especially worrying is the average level of alcohol that was recorded in fatal accidents, which touches on around 200mg,” Demetriou explained. The legally accepted limit is 22 mg.
Demetriou said 50mg of alcohol in someone’s blood increased more than ten-fold their chances of causing, while 150mg make it 380 times more likely. “Imagine what can happen with 200 mg in the blood,” he said.
AKEL deputy Panicos Stavrianos, who presided over the meeting, said the data submitted on various aspects of alcohol consumption were worrying.
“Restricting ourselves to crying over the graves of relatives, friends and acquaintances is not enough,” said Stavrianos. Domestic violence was another serious aspect related to alcohol consumption, he said.
“We need to deal with the weak spots on a legal and institutional basis, as well as in our own homes,” said Stavrianos.
DISY MP Tasos Mitsopoulos said data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the EU showed a worrying increased in alcohol abuse in Cyprus. “We must prevent the expansion of alcohol consumption, which is creating multidimensional social losses,” said Mitsopoulos.
He said even though the majority of alcoholics were foreign, there was still a significantly high number of Cypriots with the same addiction.
DIKO’s Stelios Ieronimides said Cyprus was in the top six EU states when it came to beer consumption, which he said was mostly seen as a soft drink in Cyprus and used in sporting adverts.
The Committee, he added, was informed that there had been an increase in the number of 15-year-olds who abusing alcohol. This issue would need a new meeting, he said.
EDEK deputy Roulla Mavronicola said there was a national strategy to deal with and prevent alcoholism but a lack of coordination had effectively made it inactive.
“It is a very serious problem that affects youths mostly, with many underage children consuming alcohol,” she said.
