CYPRUS yesterday signed the European Road Safety Charter, which aims to halve fatal road accidents by 2010.
Nineteen companies, semi-government organisations, municipalities and other bodies signed the Charter, as part of the European Union’s plans to decrease road deaths across the EU by 25,000 each year.
Presenting Cyprus’ road safety policy, Communications Minister Nicos Nicolaides said a reduction in road accidents was high on President Demetris Christofias’ list of priorities.
In 2008, he added, there was a 20.4 per cent reduction in road deaths and a 45.1 per cent decrease in road-related injuries.
Although these are good percentages, they are far from reaching the EU goal of a 50 per cent decrease in road deaths by 2010. In order to reach that, 2008 should have seen a 33.7 per cent reduction in deaths; though 2008 had the least road deaths for the past 30 years and least injuries for the past 44 years.
But Nicolaides said: “We don’t have the right to fail implementing the EU goal to reduce fatal road accidents by 50 per cent until 2010”.
According to the minister, dealing with this problem is complicated, as it involves changing the behaviour of Cypriot drivers. But the government is using the guidance of experts to help them along.
In 2005 until 2007, 36 per cent of road fatalities were foreign, while 37 per cent of those who died in the past five years were under the age of 25.
The government, said Nicolaides, is paying special emphasis to these groups of motorists.
Justice Minister Loucas Louca said road checks had intensified and the decision had been made to deal with the main reasons behind serious road accidents more strictly.
These reasons include driving under the influence of alcohol and excessive speeding.
Road checks, said Louca, increased by 24 per cent in 2008 compared to the year before and there was a 7.25 increase in drivers being booked for drunken driving.
“Of the 82 dead drivers and passengers in 2008, one third were not wearing a seatbelt, while in 2007, more than half of them were not wearing a seatbelt,” said Louca.
In a bid to increase road patrols further, the minister said the force had bought an added 100 motorcycl4ees, while in the next few months, the new traffic camera system is expected to operate again.
Director of Inland Transport at DG TREN at the European Commission, Grillo Pasquarelli, said the responsibility for improving road safety lies with the European Commission, national governments, local authorities and society.
He expressed the view that 82 dead on the Cypriot roads in 2008 are the equivalent of 103 dead per one million inhabitants, a number he deemed high.
Cyprus, said Pasquarelli, is one of the most attractive tourist destinations and he stressed the need to reduce traffic accidents.
He also announced that a special program would be prepared for the Turkish Cypriot community in Cyprus so that when Cyprus is reunified, roads will be safe all over the island.
