PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias pledged to reduce road deaths by half for the new Road Safety Action Plan 2012-2020, which was launched yesterday.
Setting up speed cameras and upgrading driving tests and the ambulance service were among some of the significant changes to be made.
Christofias was speaking at the event to mark the start of the Decade of Action for Road Safety as well as the signing of the European Road Safety Charter by 33 more members increasing the Cypriot members to 95.
The charter aims to stabilise the number of car accident victims and then drastically reduce them.
“Speeding is one of the most important causes of fatal car accidents and serious injuries,” said Christofias, adding that he was convinced that the setting up of speed cameras would reduce violations, and in turn accidents.
He also targeted the reorganisation of the ambulance service, which will bring about “a drastic upgrade of the care offered to those injured.” Over the next coming months the ambulance service is set to receive new vehicles, paramedic training, and four rural stations. It will also come under the leadership of a newly-created directorship and coordinated by a GPS-equipped central control room at Nicosia General Hospital.
Other changes will include campaigns aimed at young people and foreigners, who are considered two out of the three high risk groups, motorcyclists being third on the list, as well as upgrading roads and equipping cars with modern safety equipment.
Christofias also spoke of the Cypriot mentality in relation to behaviour on the roads. “We Cypriots, if I may say it, we are a little lackadaisical. When we’re stopped by the police for not wearing a seatbelt or because he wants to do an alcotest, we think that he’s only doing it to bring in revenue for the state,” said Christofias calling for this thinking to end. “We have to be responsible for our own lives and that of our neighbours,” he added.
He said Cypriots were rather “free spirited” to the point where it was bordering on anarchy.
Another practise, which must be abandoned, he said was that of people passing their driving tests because they know the examiner. This type of practice was nothing less than putting a killer on the roads, Christofias said.
The 2005-2010 Road Safety Action Plan, which called for a 50 per cent reduction in road deaths, achieved a 41.7 per cent reduction in fatalities and a 50.4 per cent reduction in injuries in the space of five years. In 2009 around 71 people were killed in traffic accidents while in 2010 around 60 were killed. The figures for 2010 were the lowest recorded since the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus. So far this year around 18 people have died on the roads.
