Filenews 27 March 2025
The extension of the deprivation of driver's license up to two years for drivers who cause a fatal accident is promoted by the Parliament through the Transport Committee.
As stated after the meeting of the Committee, AKEL MP Andreas Pasiourtidis, during the meeting the AKEL proposal for a law amending the Motor Vehicles Law was discussed in order to provide the opportunity for a court that convicts a driver for a fatal traffic accident to proceed with the deprivation of possession of a driver's license or the acquisition of a driver's license for a period of up to two years.
As Mr. Pasiourtidis explained, today the maximum period that the court can impose the deprivation of license for someone convicted under the criminal code is up to 3 months.
He noted that this is insufficient and spoke of blatant disparity in specific offenses. Indicatively, he said that a driver who completes 16 penalty points can be deprived of his license for 6 months and if he completes the penalty points within a five-year period from the deprivation of his license, the court can deprive him of his license for 12 months. Also, for a driver who refuses to give a sample for a breathalyzer test, the court can deprive him of his driver's license for a period of up to 2 years and for a driver who refuses to give a sample for a drug test, the court can deprive him of his license for 3 years, he said.
Mr. Pasiourtidis expressed satisfaction that today, as he said, all of the Legal Service, the Cyprus Bar Association, the Ministry of Justice, and the Police agree with the philosophy of the noun proposal.
He added that the Commission will examine some legal and technical issues to improve the proposed law, stressing that the important thing is to pass legislation that will reflect through the penalty and the seriousness of the offense.
Responding to a question, he said that those who cause a fatal car accident can be sent to prison, but there are also circumstances due to which the court can either suspend the execution of the prison sentence or consider that another sentence may be sufficient.
