In 2022 there was a reduction in road traffic deaths to 37 from 45 deaths recorded in 2021 (a decrease of 18%), which is the lowest number ever, the Minister of Transport, Communications and Works said, Yannis Karousos in the context of a meeting of the Road Safety Council which he chaired today, in the presence of the Minister of Justice and Public Order, Stefis Drakou. . Karousos stressed, at the same time, the need to intensify efforts at all levels to achieve the goal of the vision of zero accidents from road collisions.
The main objectives of today's session of the Road Safety Council were the review of previous year's Council work and the Road Safety Ambassadors award for 2022.
Mr Karousos thanked the relevant Departments, the Ministry of Justice and Public Order, the Cyprus Police, the Road Safety Council and the volunteers, for the work carried out, as any results are due to the collective effort.
He also referred to the progress of completing the actions of the Road Safety Strategic Plan 2021-2030, informing that of the 158 actions, within 2021 70 actions were implemented or promoted for implementation, i.e. 44%, and within 2022 the number of actions implemented increased to 98, i.e. a rate of 62%.
“We dared, we clashed, we took initiatives to implement Road Safety actions such as the implementation of the Photomarking system, the mobile phone application FixCyprus so that citizens can register problems they find in the road infrastructure, the promotion of the airbag for motorcyclists and the subsidy programs, but also several legislations which are pending in the Parliament”, said Mr. Karousos.
At the same time, Mr. Karousos informed that in the next few days the decree will be issued regarding the inclusion of communication messages for road safety in alcohol advertising. Additionally, the institutionalization of the operation of Skills Workshops in Pre-Primary, Elementary, Middle Schools and the first grade of Lyceum and their inclusion in the timetable for the year 2023-2024 has been approved.
Finally, he praised the role of the Road Safety Ambassadors and thanked them for the work they have done in the effort to raise citizens' awareness of road safety issues with their active participation in enlightenment campaigns, in television and radio broadcasts, in lectures, workshops and experiences workshops, with special emphasis on students and national guards. He also thanked all the members of the Council for their continuous effort to achieve the objectives of the Strategic Plan and promote the relevant actions.
For her part, the Minister of Justice and Public Order, Stefi Drakou, according to the announcement, thanked Mr. Alexis Dimitriou and Mr. Michalis Sofokleous for their significant contribution to addressing the social problem of road safety and the effort to cultivate road awareness, and thanked the Police for their contribution, having held hundreds of lectures on road safety issues with the participation of 4 thousand students.
He also thanked the officials of the Ministry of Transport for their valuable assistance and emphasized that “we do not stop here, we continue with the same love and the same way we started until we reach our goal.
In turn, Mr. Alexis Dimitriou and Mr. Michalis Sofokleous thanked Minister of Transport, Communications and Works and the Minister of Justice and Public Order for the support they had and the satisfaction they felt from the opportunities they were given to come be in contact with young people and inform them, in their own way and through their own experiences, of the need to respect ourselves and other road users, with the ultimate aim of reducing road collisions and the consequences them.
They also thanked the Ministry of Defense for the opportunity to share their experiences with the young guides of the National Guardsmen serving in the National Guard camps.
