Filenews 20 September 2025 - by Michalis Chatzivasilis
The photo-marking system with the cameras of the Traffic Police has been in existence for almost four years, which came so that, together with all actions, it reduces deaths and serious injuries on the roads. This is a system that was demonized from the beginning, a lot was said against it and little in favour and for this the responsibility lies with both the management company and the state, especially with regard to the places where the vans with the mobile cameras are set up. We arrived three years later, with the results not being as expected.
Complaints from 2022 until today have reached 712,643 and it is only a matter of time before they exceed one million. A disproportionate number for a small island, which is almost equivalent to two complaints per driver. Despite the initial decrease in road fatalities and injuries observed with the advent of the photo-marking system, in 2024 and this year there is a slight increase in road deaths, which is attributed to many factors, but is related to the behaviour of drivers on the roads.
As reported to us by the Traffic Police, while in the first two years of operation of the system the drivers complied to a very large extent and in places where fixed cameras were installed both on the highways and within cities where vans with mobile cameras were parked, suddenly this changed and the violations began, mainly of the speed limit and the red light. This is also evident from the numbers, since from the 19,000 red light violations recorded by the fixed cameras in 2022, in '23 the violations skyrocketed to 59,000. This shows a disobedience of the drivers even in the places where he knows that an inspection is being carried out and will be reported.
This attitude is attributed to the relaxation of the measures and is also linked to the law proposals that had been submitted to the Parliament in the form of a barrage for the reduction of the extrajudicial fee, payment in instalments, abolition of violations, removal of cameras from checkpoints, increase of penalty points so that drivers lose their license more difficult, etc. This discussion, as well as the discussion about the "trapping" of drivers due to the arc to the right, brought a relaxation that translates into thousands of out-of-court notices.
At the same time, another issue that has been of concern from the beginning and has not yet been resolved, concerns the service of out-of-court documents. As long as a driver knows that even if he is reported, there will be no consequences since he will probably not be given the out-of-court notice, this contributes to the increase in violations.
There is no other way to understand how from the 81,000 out-of-court cases in the first year of operation of the system, we reached 259,000 last year, numbers that will be exceeded this year. As explained to "F" by a competent official, the impression has been established among drivers that even if they break the law, they will have no consequences if they do not receive their out-of-court notice or if they are not detected. It is for this reason that the unpaid out-of-court notices today have exceeded 330,000, i.e. almost half of the out-of-court bills have not been paid mainly because they have not even been served.
The problems of serving out-of-court documents to companies are also due to the largely failure, or rather to the non-delivery of the expected results, something that the new bill pending in Parliament attempts to solve. The bill will send notifications for the existence of an out-of-court complaint by sms and email, while the problems with liability for company vehicles are also regulated.
120,000 violations of the red
According to Police data, most complaints are recorded in Nicosia and Limassol, followed by Larnaca and then Paphos, while in Famagusta and Morphou, where fixed cameras do not work, violations are reduced.
In addition, 7,644 cases have been registered with the Court to date. Of the 81,058 complaints for the year 2022, 13,172 concerned traffic signal violation, 4,224 related to traffic light violation and 63,662 related to speed limit violation.
Of the 171.515 complaints for 2023, 15.784 concerned traffic signal violation, 19.238 related to traffic light violation and 136.493 violated a speed limit beyond the allowed limit.
For 2024, out of 25,7832 complaints, 32,923 were traffic signal violations, 58,928 traffic light violations and 165,981 speed limit violations. For this year, 202.238 complaints have been made to date, of which 26.141 concern traffic signal violation, 52.438 traffic light violation and 123.659 speed limit violation. As can be seen from the data, the majority of the violations concern speed, while the fact that the red light was violated 120,828 times by drivers is also sensational.
