Police launch ‘zero tolerance’ road campaign

A POLICE campaign to prevent road accidents was set in motion on Thursday in a bid to curb drink driving and speeding, often the primary causes of road deaths.

“Traffic these days is expected to be particularly increased and police officers will be in the streets across Cyprus to check drivers and offer help,” traffic police chief Giannakis Charalambous said.

The campaign, expected to last until Epiphany Day on January 6 will see officers inspecting whether drivers are speeding, under the influence of alcohol, not wearing a helmet, driving dangerously or not wearing a seatbelt.

Charalambous sought to stress officers would be applying a zero tolerance policy and called on drivers to be particularly careful, adhering to the road safety code.

These are celebratory days of joy and shouldn’t be marred with road deaths, he added.

Despite a fall in road accidents in 2015, Charalambous said there was an increase in actual road deaths.

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.