Filenews 16 May 2023
More than 180,000 driver complaints from traffic police cameras have passed, however, many of them will never reach the hands of offenders due to error, failure to show signs and failure to locate the person responsible.
More than sixteen months after the system came into operation, although complaints are significantly lower than in the first period, violations of the speed limit recorded by mobile cameras continue. As the assistant head of the Traffic Department at the Police Headquarters, Haris Evripidou, told "F", by the end of 2022, that is, in the one year of operation of the system, with four mobile cameras and four fixed ones at one point, 160,000 traffic violations had been recorded. If all four and a half months of 2023 are counted, then violations will have exceeded 180,000.
According to data provided by Mr. Evripidou, so far 138,000 extrajudicial or letters have been mailed. Specifically, 119,000 concerned extrajudicial proceedings and were sent to drivers-offenders and the remaining 19,000 concerned letters sent to companies to indicate their drivers who committed the offence in order to send them the extrajudicial notice. In addition to these cases, the Traffic Police officer added, there are also around 10,000 violations that have been recorded, but do not have a recipient, since this was done either by a mistake of the system, or because it was at a test stage, or because the registration numbers did not look good, so the driver of the vehicle could not be located. For these 10,000 problematic violations, the Attorney General will be informed so that he can give the OK so that an extrajudicial decision will not be issued.
Also, out of the 119,000 extrajudicial notices that have been sent, around 50,000 have not been paid, so now the process of preparing a file for the case to reach the courts has begun. So far no case has been registered concerning the photo-tagging system, however, files have been prepared for the court and have been given a relevant number, known as RCI.
Regarding the completion of the first phase of the system, the procedures are ongoing and the problems that were observed and blocked the operation of the cameras at six fixed points, have been overcome. At the moment, as Mr. Evripidou informed us, officers of the Department of Electrical and Mechanical Services are carrying out checks at the two fixed points in Limassol (both on Makarios Avenue) and at one of the two in Nicosia, next to the Lycabettus Police Station. In Nicosia, cameras have already been installed on Strovolos Avenue at its junction with Machaira Street (next to Pepsi Kola) but they are also operating on a trial basis.
According to the contract, the cameras of Phase A will have to be delivered by the end of May, so that then the second and final phase of the system can begin, which provides for the installation of cameras at 23 fixed points all over Cyprus, with completion by the end of 2023. It is noted that four more mobile cameras should be delivered by the end of May, so that there are 20 in total.
According to Mr. Evripidou, the managing company has been given the points where fixed cameras will be installed and some changes have already been made from the initial decisions, either due to road redesign or due to the installation of curves. Changes will be made in two places in Nicosia, since it was planned to put cameras on the lights 'Good afternoon', but these will be cancelled due to the creation of an interchange before the entrance of Nicosia, as well as in the area of Astromeritis, where it was decided to create a motorway to Evrychou. Changes will also be made at two points on the Limassol coastal avenue (plateau has been created and the limit has been reduced to 30km) as well as at two points in Larnaka – Famagusta.
They change their decision and pay
In the meantime, the phenomenon has been observed, drivers who initially when they received the extrajudicial from the cameras refused to pay it, then contacted the Police and expressed their intention to pay the fine and not to take the case to Court. When someone's excuse is justified, the assistant head of the Traffic Police said, then he is allowed to pay the extrajudicial fee, because we do not want citizens to be inconvenienced or to burden the judicial system. It has also clarified what will happen to cases where drivers are reported by cameras, but have licenses from another country and are not easily detected. In consultation with the Legal Service, a solution has been found so that the out-of-court document can be located and sent to them.
