Speed cameras are to be re-introduced on Cyprus roads a year earlier than planned after the recent increase in road-related deaths.
While speed cameras were expected to be in place sometime in 2020, after recent cabinet decisions the first cameras are to be installed by the end of 2019.
The changes are believed to have come about after pressure from the police, who have been campaigning for the reintroduction of speed cameras expressing concerns over the rising death toll on Cyprus roads.
The Chief of Police Zacharias Chrysostomou had recently highlighted the 52% reduction in road accidents after speed cameras were introduced in 2006-07 in order to support the force’s argument that traffic cameras should urgently be installed.
The cameras were first introduced in 2007 but technical and legal issues forced the government at the time, to switch off the system.
Technical matters and red-tape have also been responsible for the delay in reintroducing speed cameras to prevent carnage and chaos on the island's roads.
Last year saw an increase of 15% in the number of people who lost their lives on the island’s roads, reaching 53 from 46 in 2016 – it was the steepest rise in the EU.
And 2018 is expected to see the number of road victims rise further.
Up until 1 August, 29 people have lost their lives in road accidents, 5 more than the same period last year.
The government has also decided to change the status of the project’s financing and management. Cameras are no longer to be part of a BOT scheme but a public project.
According to the decisions taken after consultation with the Auditor General, there will be an extra budget allocated to the Ministry of Justice for 2019 for the cameras as an additional project.
The difference lays in that while a private investor will finance the project and handle the system – delivering fines and receive payments – the money paid by offenders will end up in state coffers, with the government paying a yearly fee to the company.
A total of 110 cameras are to be installed – on highways and major traffic junctions – 20 of which will be mobile, either to be located at accident black spots or will be placed inside police vehicles. The whole project is to cost around €45 mln.
