Missing the point on road safety

Sir,
It seems that even after so many needless deaths on our roads, the relevant parties still have no understanding of the real problems concerning driving in Cyprus.
The authorities seem to focus on alcohol as the root of all evil. While drink-driving is certainly a terrible thing, it is not the island’s main problem. Basic driving standards, lack of road manners, fundamental driving skills and etiquette are the real killers here.
The incompetence and inbred recklessness of the majority of local drivers is appalling. In Limassol, one has only to take a short drive to witness the extent of the problem. Cars swerving in and out of lanes, jumping red-lights, not obeying yellow junction boxes, no seat-belts on children, double and even treble parking, speeding, impatience and on and on.
The blatant disregard that many parents seem to have for their children’s safety is hypocritical to say the least in the face of the local community’s so-called love of its young.
For example, I personally know of intelligent and educated parents who see no wrong in ‘popping’ to the shops or to school with an infant/young child hanging on to the scooter!
Young men on super-bikes, zipping along on one wheel at incredible speed are ignored by the police. The examples are endless. We drive much like the worst third world countries do, but think we are Europeans.

The police seem to take little or no notice of any of this. This is probably due to a variety of reasons, the main being:

1. Police men/women are no different from anybody else and have no better understanding of the problems or their solutions. They drive the same as everybody else.
2. They are far too busy booking people on highways for speeding slightly over the limit on a clear/open road.
3. Many fines get wiped off anyway
4. Courts impose pathetic fines/rulings
I am not saying that I know the answers, just that the people who are paid by the taxpayer to have the answers are incompetent, to say the least.

M Evgeniou,
Limassol

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.