As of Monday, 16 traffic cameras have been put into operation in Paphos at five locations, as the island’s westernmost town becomes the last to join the traffic camera network.
As announced earlier by the Cyprus Transport Ministry, four of the 16 cameras have been placed at the junction of Evropis, Yiannou Kranidioti and Georgiou Savva avenues.
Another four devices have been positioned at the crossing of Ellados, Dimokratias and Tassos Papadopoulos avenues.
The last set of four devices is now operational at the intersection of Ayion Anargyron and Spyrou Kyprianou avenues with Agapinoros Street.
Two more fixed cameras have been positioned at the convergence of Athinon and Christodoulos Sozos avenues, while an additional two devices are now monitoring the junction of Chloraka and Griva Digeni avenues.
The latest additions in the coastal town are part of the second phase of the traffic camera system, which was launched in September.
By the first week of March, the contracting company should have installed and delivered another 66 cameras in 23 fixed points covering all towns and districts except Famagusta, which only gets mobile units.
Once the €34 mln system is fully operational, there will be 90 fixed units in 30 locations and 20 mobile cameras.
358,000 violations
According to the latest available data, since January 1, 2022 a total 357,870 violations have been recorded and 279,751 court orders issued. Of these, 233,572 have been paid, while another 42,179 remain unpaid or pending.
Traffic cameras were first introduced 14 years ago, but technical and legal issues over the ownership of the platform and collection of fines forced the government to switch them off.
Cyprus has adopted the European target of a 50% reduction in road fatalities and serious injuries by 2030.
In comments to Philelefteros daily, the acting head of the Police Traffic Department, Charis Evripidou, said that the unit has recorded a reduction in road deaths by 18% in 2022 and a reduction of three deaths last year, from 37 in 2022 to 34 in 2023, the lowest number since statistics have been kept.
Cameras record traffic light and speed limit violations, plus secondary offences such as not wearing a seatbelt or crash helmet and talking on the phone while driving.
Authorities are working on improving the delivery system, looking to introduce notifications via SMS instead of only via mail.
