Cyprus Mail - article by Kristian Chrysostomou 24 September 2018
Police launched a Cyprus-wide road safety campaign targeting motorcyclists on Monday which will last until Sunday.
The week-long campaign is the second one this year prompted by the high number of fatalities that are associated with motorcycles, particularly in the years 2015-2017. Police will be checking for valid licences, whether the bikers are wearing a helmet as well as insurance. Part of the campaign will be aimed at school students.
Police statistics show that between the period of 2015-2017, nearly one in two of bikers who died in road accidents was not wearing a helmet.
The European Transport Safety Council said that Cyprus had the highest increase in road deaths among 23 EU member states for 2017.
In June, the assistant director of the traffic department Charis Evripidou told media that in the past, fatalities among bikers represented around 30 per cent of the total while in 2018, the percentage has climbed to 45 per cent.
With regards to other road fatalities, Evripidou noted that part of the reason why the number was high was because of the use of mobile phones and failure to wear seat belts.
