Cyprus Mail 8 September 2019
There’s been a three-fold increase in the number of fines for illegal parking in disabled areas
By Gina Agapiou
Almost 1500 drivers have been fined this summer for illegally parking in disabled spots after the president promised a young boy in a wheelchair to highlight the issue, according to a recent traffic police report.
The wheelchair-bound boy, who was named just Loukas, raised the issue of illegal parking with President Nicos Anastasiades when he paid a visit to Nicosia general hospital at the beginning of June to check on the implementation of the general health system (Gesy).
The president took the matter seriously and later tweeted his thanks to the boy. He then gave instructions to the justice minister to ensure traffic police clamped down on the practice.
According to a police report released at the end of last month, his intervention worked. Between June and the end of August, 1492 drivers were fined for parking in disabled spots without a disability parking card (blue badge), compared to just 527 drivers in the same period last year. In total, 1735 people were fined for the whole of 2018, while 2347 drivers alone have been fined between January 1 and August 31 this year.
While increased police vigilance is certainly a major reason for the increase in fines, another is that, as urban road networks get upgraded, there are simply more disabled parking spots around for able-bodied drivers to abuse
The head of the traffic police, Yannakis Georgiou told the Sunday Mail that there has been a significant increase in the number of disabled parking slots in the last couple of years.
“According to a 2017 law, parking spaces should include ten per cent of disabled parking slots, such a legislation was not applied before on Cyprus, hence the fines also increased in relation to two years ago,” Georgiou said.
While the Paraplegics Association has welcomed the clampdown on illegal parking, the association’s head, Demetris Lambrianides, says the fine imposed is not enough of a penalty.
The fine for wrongly parking in a disabled spot is €85, the highest fine for parking along with parking on a pavement, near traffic lights, pedestrian crossing or bus stop.
But Lambrianides said instead of just a fine, cars should be towed away.
“Only when cars are towed away will drivers stop parking illegally, not just in disabled spots but on pavements as well,” said.
Discussion to raise the maximum fine for traffic violations in general including disabled parking have been taking place since March but no agreement has been reached.
Lambrianides said there is a noticeable misuse of the blue badge from relatives or friends of disabled people.
Persons with severe motor disability or visual disability are eligible for blue badges which enable them to park in places marked in blue for disabled people.
“The misuse of the blue badge is inconceivable,” says Lambrianides and suggests the issue be resolved by upgrading the blue badges so they can be scanned electronically to identify the owner.
He added that despite the increase in the number of disabled parking places, more are needed.
“There are not enough parking spots for disabled people in public parking areas, and even fewer in the streets,” he said.
“In the last few years, there was some change to the law, but it is still not sufficient.”
A sign of the frustration felt by the disabled is a short film by Greek director Theodores Papadoulakis released in December 2018. “My brother”, produced as part of the #RespectLife campaign, went viral and also reached Cyprus.
The video shows a young boy vandalising a busy street and breaking the windshields of a car because earlier he was trying to push his sibling’s wheelchair on the pavement that was filled with tables from the shops and could not cross the street because of vehicles parked at the crossings.
