THE TARGET of the government’s Road Safety Committee is to decrease the number of road deaths by 50 per cent by the year 2010, Justice Minister Sophocles Sophocleous said yesterday.
This can be achieved by the introduction of a number of measures which will be both preventative and repressive, with a zero tolerance on driving offenders. Sophocleous, however, did not believe this meant that the measures to be introduced were too strict: “we are saying no to a police state, but yes to an effective state.”
According to both Justice and Communications Ministers, nine out of ten road accidents are down to human error. Both of them rejected the claim that the poor road network was causing many of the accidents.
“Based on scientific research, the reasons for the accidents are not because of the roads, but we cannot deny that there is room for improvement. The Public Works Department has begun an investigation into highlighting the problematic areas of the road network,” Communications Minister Harris Thrassou said.
Speaking at the Road Safety Council, Chairman of the House Communications Committee Zacharias Koulias said they were committed to dealing with road safety issues. “We are going to do everything possible for the chaos on Cypriot roads to cease. We have arrested 400 people for driving under the influence of alcohol. In some cases, if they had not spent the night in a cell, they could have ended up in a grave. Therefore these punishments are being imposed on offenders who put other people at risk as well,” Koulias said.
Koulias said that since 1960, more than 1,150 people lost their lives on the road every ten years. “Basically, in four and a half decades 5,500 people have died. Forty per cent of these people are under the age of 25. We must all contribute in order to do the right thing,” he added.
The Council discussed the increase in the punishment for someone who has caused death while speeding or under the influence of alcohol from four to ten years as well as the introduction of more police in order for there to be more effective control for driving offences. In addition to this, police have asked for the money collected for traffic fines to be made available to police to use in their road safety campaigns.
