4000 fined as police clampdown on erring motorists

OVER 4,000 motorists were fined for committing a series of traffic violations in just a single week, police said yesterday.

From February 11 to 17 police stopped and charged 4,409 drivers.

Specifically 1,931 were fined for speeding, 491 for failing to wear front and back seatbelts, 32 ,motorcyclists for failing to wear a helmet, 484 for using a mobile phone while driving, 39 for driving without registration plates, 51 for driving unregistered cars, 26 for driving cars without MOT certificates and 1,263 for other violations.
During the same week police stopped and breathalysed 1,508 drivers, 92 of who were over the legal alcohol limit.

In the same period 90 motorists also had their licenses suspended or the right to acquire a license suspended.

The fines indicate police’s ongoing efforts to clampdown on the island’s high road fatality rate. They are also part of the government’s wider campaign to slash road deaths in half by 2010 in line with EU objectives.

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.