Cyprus participates in European road safety programme

Cyprus is one of 12 European Union member states taking part in the Road Safety Project “Module Close To (MCT)”, in effort to help reduce road accidents.

MCT is co-financed by the European Commission /DG Transport for the three year period 2007-2010 and is targeting the young learner drivers aged 18-25.

According a press release, this project aims at changing the attitude of young drivers and thus substantially reducing the number of accidents.

It is added that the objective of MCT is to enrich the theoretical part of the driver education programme, while a suitable teaching building module will be developed which will guarantee its use European-wide.

Project Coordinator is the Austrian non-profit making organisation Austrian Mobility Research – FGM-AMOR. The programme has the full support of the Cyprus Ministry of Communications and Works, the European Driving Schools Association EFA and the International Commission of Driver Testing Authori-ties CIECA.

In summary, the aim of the MCT programme is to call on young drivers who caused road accidents or were involved in a road accident and had a traumatic experience to volunteer and share their experience and present the consequences of their accident to young learners.

As part of the pilot project implementation stage, seminars will be organised originally in Nicosia. Provision is made so that in future, these seminars are extended to cover all the towns.

The Ministry of Defence and the National Guard as part of their social contribution are actively taking part in the pilot programme implementation. To this end they have made arrangements for the participation of young conscripts to the programme.

The Cyprus Road Transport Department believes that the programme could contribute to improved road safety and will consider the option to include MCT in the compulsory programmes which learner drivers will have to attend in the near future before they apply for their practical test.