Paphos Life

Numerous meetings between the Legal Services and the Ministry of Justice have been held over the last two days regarding new regulations for road traffic offenses.

Yesterday and the day before, officers of the Legal Services had meetings with officers of the Ministry of Justice to examine legal issues which where raised. A formula is sought to enable the police to confiscate vehicles when drivers are caught driving at high speeds or when drinking and driving, as well as the deprivation of driving licenses without a court order.

According to Fileleftheros Newspaper, it seems that the formula is in place (to empower police officers to withhold vehicles and temporarily withdraw driving licenses of offenders) under certain conditions.

The bill is expected to be submitted to the House of Representatives before the end of the year. Under the regulations suggested, all offenses related to serious infringements of the law are to be heavily penalised, with the aim of curbing road traffic incidents.

For speed, the fine of one euro per kilometer per hour and up to 2 penalty points is proposed to be increased to €5 per kilometer per hour and 4 penalty points. For offenders driving over 50% of the speed limit it is proposed to increase the fine to €5 per kilometer per hour as well as a penalty increase from 3 to 6. Offenders driving over 75% of the speed limit are currently being punished with an extra fine of €3 per kilometer per hour as well as 3-6 penalty points. It is proposed to increase the fine to to €5 per kilometer per hour as well as increase the penalty points from 4 to 8.

If a driver is arrested for speeding and drink driving or is under the influence of drugs, a sentence of imprisonment of up to 4 years or a fine of up to €15,000 is being proposed. In the event that the offence is repeated within a period of 3 years, the above penalties are doubled as well as the deprivation of the driving license from 2 to 12 months. Fines for driving without a helmet and seat belt are being increased from €85 to €300 plus 3 to 6 penalty points. The use of mobile phones while driving is being raised to €300 while 5-10 penalty points can also be imposed. For traffic light offenses, fines are being increased from €85 to €200 and the initial penalty points of 2 to 4 are being increased to 3 to 6. Parking in disabled parking spaces and sidewalks is being changed from €85 to €150.

https://in-cyprus.com/news/local/traffi ... eat-belts/

Yes it is a good idea that punishments are raised bearing in mind that a lot of peoples income has increased far quicker and more than that the fines have.

However you have to get people to actually believe that they are going to get stopped and then prosecuted for them to take any increase seriously and that means that the Police have to take vehicular offences more seriously and be very proactive in enforcing such laws.
Yes they will say we are very busy doing this and that and preventing crime, so the answer to that is a proficient system of road cameras to enforce the traffic laws.

It also requires the court system to raise their game and deal with the offenders quickly and then enforce the fines if they are not paid in time.

Agree completely that the police need to be much more visible to motorists and not just lurking in bushes or under motorway bridges with their speed guns!
We probably need more police locally and not be reliant on ones from Nicosia. At present the latter seem to be the only ones who apply the law to anyone caught in violation.
But driving while using a mobile and shooting over red lights seems to be almost endemic...

Dee

Dad's in the legal profession here, so I am exempt all these proposals.

Alan

Exactly Emgee. This is the whole problem, it is pointless increasing the fines and punishments unless the police force on the ground is actually prosecuting offenders and not just ignoring their families, friends, business associates, their bank manager, taxi drivers......etc etc.

This is the crux of the pproblem, not the size of the penalties.

Slowly, slowly catchee monkey!

But not a police monkey apparently!


Shane