THERE were few places more appropriate for today’s launch of a youth road safety campaign than the GC School of Careers in Nicosia where in August the students lost one of their friends, Andreas Petrou.
The school’s students for whom road deaths were more than an abstract reality performed a song they had personally written for Petrou.
The event was dedicated to Petrou and was organised by the non-profit organisation Reaction: Youth for the Prevention.
Petrou was one of 19 youths under the age of 25 who lost their lives in a road accident this year.
Over the last decade over 36 per cent of all those who died in road accidents were under 25 years of age; between 2001 and 2010 a total of 326 young people died, according to the traffic department’s statistics.
Reaction said that statistically over the years, almost half of those who lose their life in road accidents in Cyprus are young people.
“The pain and anguish of the families is incalculable,” Reaction’s Marios Stavrou said.
And that statement was made concrete by the touching testimony of a mother, Lena Mavrikiou who five years ago lost her son on New Year’s Eve when a drunk driver critically injured him.
“It’s hard for any mother to go through what I have been going through the past years,” Mavrikiou said.
Mavrikiou urged young people to be sensitive to their parents’ worries and be vigilant on the road.
Communications Minister Efthymios Flourentzos said that as part of their 2012-2020 road safety strategy they aimed to halve the related number of fatalities and injuries.
He called on young people to display ‘coolness’ by refusing to get in the cars of friends who have either been drinking or tend to speed.
“I address you as a father asking you to be understanding and loving towards your parents who worry about you when you are on the road,” Education Minister Giorgos Demosthenous told the GC School students.
Reaction’s campaign will be ongoing throughout the holiday season.
The campaign targets young people with the theme ‘You should be the cool one’.
Alcohol followed by speeding are the two main factors leading to injuries and deaths of drivers and motorcyclists in Cyprus, according to the traffic department.
The traffic department has repeatedly said that most deaths and injuries could have been prevented by wearing a crash helmet or putting on a seat belt.
