Newsroom
Seven hundred and twenty nine people lost their lives in road crashes between 2008-2020, 60% of which (drivers and passengers) were not wearing a seat belt while 54% of motorcycle drivers and passengers weren’t wearing a helmet, figures released by the Cyprus police on Thursday showed.
Iasonas Senekkis, advisor on road safety to the Ministry of Justice and Public Order told the Cyprus News Agency that a total of
10,542 crashes were recorded by the Police and 15,173 people were injured. Of those, 5,950 suffered serious injuries, 9,223 were slightly injured whereas 5,687 crashes resulted in material damage only.
2008 was the worst year for road deaths with a total of 82 and 2013 recorded the lowest death rate of the period with 44 deaths.
The figures show that in total, 221 people were killed on Nicosia roads and 212 in Limassol.
78% of the fatalities are male (571) and 22% (158) are female. Seventeen children aged under 15 are among the dead.
The most serious primary factors that lead to a fatal crash include driving under the influence of alcohol (26%), reckless driving (22%) and speeding (12%).
While other factors come into play to exacerbate crashes, Senekkis said recent studies by the Εuropean Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as well as the conclusions of the Executive Seminar for Speed and Speed Management that took place last December show that speeding is a factor in one third of fatal crashes.
