Filenews 24 July 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivassilis
The cost of fatal and serious accidents to the economy over the last five years has amounted to the appalling sum of one billion euros, in addition to the loss of human life. Every year 42-48 lives are lost on the streets, several others are injured, stuck in wheelchairs.
The political head of the Ministry of Transport, Giannis Karousos, in an interview with "F", refers to a series of actions that are being launched in order to reduce traffic collisions. He tells us his feelings when a new deadly conflict occurs and gives his own recipe for solving the traffic problem.
- We have reached 26 deaths this year in road collisions, Minister, what is to blame in the end?
- Certainly being the head of the Ministry that has the responsibility of road safety, the responsibilities are increased. I personally made this issue one of my priorities because even a human life to be saved means a lot. This year we see that there is an increase in fatalities of 33% and we are at the same levels as in 2018. We have a significant number of dead motorcyclists and foreigners this year which worries us. But what we notice is that of the seven dead motorcyclists, five did not wear a helmet, it is also speed and reckless driving. Especially in June we had for some reason increased fatal accidents.
For me it all starts and ends with the right information and the change of culture. It is not easy to change it, so one of the things we will do is to go to the Minister of Education and ask as a Road Safety Council to include road safety in the lessons. At the moment there is the lesson, 20 hours in two classes and we want them to join from kindergarten to the graduation of students. I should also stress that for road safety, I will call for an increase in the budget of the Ministry's Road Safety Unit. It was €150,000, we got it to €500,000 and it will go €1.5 million. in order to have visibility of road safety issues. This is because the cost of road safety and deaths over the last five years has been more than a billion euros. It is a terrible cost in addition to the loss of life, and that is why we should increase the budget for road safety.
-Head of the Road Safety Council which makes decisive decisions to address the road problem. What measures are being studied to reduce fatalities?
- Recently, the Legislation for scooters was passed by the Parliament, the use of which now comes under legislation, with the use of a helmet, in bicycle lanes, maximum speed limit, etc. They are currently operating under a law of '72. Now it is changing, the faculties are being categorized, controls are being introduced, the trainers will also be trained. The bill on driving licenses is also pending in Parliament, so that the driving school has an expiration date of two years and not unlimited as it is today. As far as student licenses for a motorcycle are concerned, when the legislation is passed, only accompanied by an instructor will they enter the road network, because the point is to train them and not to grab a machine under 125cc and renew their licence once a year.
At the same time, the MOT for motorcycles comes after workshops are soon licensed. We signed the contract for the vehicle that will scan the roads, while soon the 'fix Cyprus' application is put into operation, where drivers will post photos with problematic points on the road network which will be immediately corrected by the competent services, whether it is the Public Works or the local authorities. Also, the law on accident damaged vehicles is being prepared where when an accident with damage occurs only, it should be declared in a database so that it is recorded in the vehicle's certificate (kotsiani) and at the same time the place where the collision occurred will be registered in order to collect data for accident black spots.
