Sir,
Your editorial on Wednesday asked what more the police could do to reduce road deaths. The answer is simple – plenty.
As a resident of Paphos I can only comment about the police activity in that district, and what I see is very little. Vehicles are parked on double-yellow lines and the pavements are littered with cars. Pavements are for pedestrians, not cars. When cars park on pavements, people have to walk in the road, increasing the risk of being knocked down. In the UK, in most major towns and cities, illegally parked cars are taken away and their owners have to pay well over £100 to get them back. If the government was as concerned about road accidents as it claims, it would introduce similar legislation. Drivers very quickly get the message when they add the cost of the fine to the inconvenience of having to go and retrieve their car.
Yellow lines are there for a purpose but are widely ignored by drivers and by the police who take no action. I have seen Traffic Wardens parking their little scooters on yellow lines while they go in for a cup of coffee, mind you I’ve seen Traffic Wardens going through red lights as well. Forget to buy a ticket for your car in a car park and you’ll get a ticket from a Traffic Warden, but park your car on yellow lines or on a pavement and nothing will happen.
Speed is the major cause of road accidents and the police must continue their efforts in this respect but one of the youngsters killed last weekend would still be alive if she was wearing a seat belt. I’ve lived in Paphos for over three years now and there has been a noticeable increase in the number of adults wearing seat belts, but children still don’t. What action are the police taking about that? Not enough.
Per capita, Cyprus has the highest number of Police officers in Europe – but conversely it has one of the lowest crime rates. There’s a message for the Chief Constable in those figures. He must look at the resources he has and ask himself why they are so inefficient and ineffective at reducing road accidents. What percentage of them are actually out patrolling rather than in desk jobs?
In Paphos there is a pedestrian crossing right outside the police office and another within 50 yards. They both have those nice little zig-zag lines on either side of them. Those lines are for a purpose. Cars aren’t meant to park on them so that other drivers have a good view of the crossing as they approach and can give way for pedestrians who are supposed to have the right of way on a pedestrian crossing. Despite being right next to the police station both the zig zag lines, and sometimes even the crossings themselves have cars parked on them, but I haven’t yet seen a ticket on any of these vehicles. What can the Police do about road accidents? In Pafos, they could start on their own doorstep.
Steven Horrocks, Paphos
