North’s road fatality rate ‘six times EU average’

The rate of fatalities on the north’s roads is “six times the European Union average”, Cyprus Turkish chamber of mechanical engineers (KTMMO) chairman Ayer Yarkiner said on Wednesday.

He added that the north’s fatality rate is also three times that of Turkey and noted that while the north’s unclear population statistics may impact the figures, “measures must be taken to prevent an increase in the number of deaths.

“If traffic has remained so primitive and unsafe, it is because we have been in a death sleep on this issue since 1974,” he said, adding that the authorities should devise strategies and plans with the goal of there being “zero loss of life”.

He said ideas could include speed limits being determined according to vehicle classes, “because the severity of collisions increases and the ability to slow down decreases as the mass of vehicles increases.”

He also pointed out that the road between Kythrea and Kyrenia, known as the “mountain road”, is “not symmetrical”, and as such the lines painted on it are “wrong and need to be corrected”.

The mountain road is infamous among Turkish Cypriot motorists, with frequent accidents occurring on it, often involving heavy goods vehicles. Most recently, a man lost his life on Tuesday when a lorry collided with a pickup truck.

Road safety was a hot topic earlier in the year in the north, after Greek Cypriot Photis Photiou was killed when his pickup collided with a bus on the road between Komi Kebir and Dhavlos.