Filenews 12 July 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivassilis
More than 30 dangerous points where road accidents occurred often of a fatal nature during the process of turning right, have been recorded by the Traffic Police on a pancyprian basis, where immediate measures will be taken.
The issue was raised at the last meeting of the Road Safety Council last Friday and the involvement of the Department of Public Works was requested to take measures to prohibit the turn right, to eliminate the risk of causing a road collision. The Traffic Department has prepared a report on the matter and recorded all the points where accidents occurred while drivers were attempting to turn right. It is noted that turning right is considered one of the main causes of fatal accidents, especially motorcycles. Drivers turn right to go to a gas station or parking lot, without taking the necessary measures, as a result of which they cut off the course of a passing driver with dire consequences.
During the discussion of the issue, the Road Safety Council decided to give instructions to the Public Works for the installation of plastic piles or even a built islet in order to cut off the option of turning right, in order to save lives.
Justice Minister Stefi Drakou said on the issue that it has been agreed to police at these points, because "we have noticed that many of the accidents are due to illegal clockwise turns. We will make more use of the statistics and places where accidents occurred to see if the site plays a role and take measures. For example, we find that some of the accidents of right turns are because there is a gas station or parking lot on the other side, so we discussed how we can take some measures in such cases."
At the same time, the Council decided to invite the Minister of Education Prodromos Prodromou in order to co-decide on the increase of road safety classes in schools at all levels. Today, only in a class in the Gymnasium and in the second grade of Lyceum is the subject of road safety taught, which is why they want it to be extended to the young ages so that there is a road consciousness from young children.
In the meantime, the co-competent ministries are waiting for whether the next phase of the photo-labelling system will proceed. The Receiving Committee is currently carrying out an audit of what was requested to be done by the company that undertook the implementation of the project and only if the green light is turned on the government will proceed to phase A (now we are still in the pilot).
